Filtered through some of its colourful and eccentric inhabitants, from Lady Caroline Lamb in the 18th-century to Princess Diana in the 20th, this work is a portrait of Britain as both empire and the customs and certainties of the old order came to an end.

From the prize winning author of 'William Morris' comes a new biography of Edward Burne-Jones, the greatest British artist of the second half of the nineteenth century. The angels on our Christmas cards, the stained glass in our churches, the great paintings in our galleries: Edward Burne-Jones's work is all around us.

Fiona MacCarthy has knitted together the many themes and threads in the life of William Morris into a coherent whole. Morris has come to be regarded as one of the giants of the 19th century.

For this biography of Byron, Fiona MacCarthy has had exclusive access to the full John Murray Byron archive. She brings a fresh eye to Byron's childhood in Scotland, his embattled relations with his mother, and the effect on him of his deformed foot.