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pp. 288, b/w and colour illustrations, “John Churchill, the future 1st Duke of Marlborough, started life with very little. His father, Sir Winston, was a Royalist during the Protectorate and had to pay ruinous fines, so John was on his own. Dazzlingly handsome when he arrived at court—indeed, dazzling in so many ways for his entire life—he became the lover of Barbara Villiers, sharing her with Charles II, during the same time his sister was the mistress of James, Duke of York. ‘Scandalmongers of the period and priggish and prurient historians since have suggested, their breath indrawn with disapproval, that Marlborough owed his commission to the fact that his elder sister Arabella was the Duke of York’s mistress; if true, it was fortunate for England and Europe that the Duke found her person so agreeable.'”