This book outlines the lives and careers of the original members of the Eton Society of Arts. Members include such well-known people as the novelist Anthony Powell but also those whose lives are nowadays more or less forgotten, including Hugh Lygon who was the model for Sebastian in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, and the critic Alan Clutton-Brock whose home was used by the BBC when filming Wolf Hall.

This book serves as a pocket guide to some of the main places visited by the travel writer Robert Byron, whilst at the same time touching on his achievements in the fields of art history, Byzantine studies and architectural history. The reader is also given a fascinating glimpse of Byron's private life, including his friendship with the authors Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh.