The most successful British general until the advent of Napoleon, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, was also a successful, if devious politcian, and a commanding figure both on the continent of Europe and the English court from the time of King James II. King James' mistress was Churchill's sister until he married Queen Anne whose intimate friend, the beautiful, gifted, shrewed and difficult Sarah, was Churchill's wife. The book concentrates upon John Churchill's personal life as husband, lover, friend and fond father, as well as upon his sensitive, emotional and complicated character, his interests and failings, his patronage of the arts and architecture, his love of gardening and landscaping, his passion for dining out in the houses of the rich, his resilience in imprisonment and disgrace and his commanding presence and importance in a country rising to national greatness.