Who was this heroic Victorian campaigner, this secular saint who, as `the lady of the lamp', became a living legend?

This revealing biographical guide looks at Florence Nightingale - the tireless, far-sighted and often cantankerous reformer who lies beyond the myth: at her youth, her time in the Crimea and her later career, using primary sources including extracts from her prolific letters and illustrated with her own artefacts and possessions.