In 1898, before he was 40, George Nathaniel Curzon, first and last Marquess of Curzon of Kedleston, was appointed Viceroy of India. It was a role for which he had consciously trained himself since his schooldays. Englishmen still believed robustly in the civilizing mission of the British Empire, and a small, self-sufficient ruling class of aristocratic and land-owning families took their right to rule for granted. It was, to use Kenneth Rose's striking phrase, an age of gunroom diplomacy, in which the shared intimacies of Eton and Balliol, of country houses and London clubs, dominated politics and influenced policy both at home and abroad. An enthralling portrait of a remarkable man and a remarkable time.