Sidney Herbert: too short a life

Patron of Florence Nightingale, high society and the Arts, Sidney Herbert was hailed in his own times as a statesman, administrative reformer and co-founder of modern Liberalism. Strangely neglected since his death, this biography brilliantly recaptures, through its subject, the many paradoxes of Victorian Britain. At once both Irish landlord and 'One of the most worthy Wiltshiremen who ever lived', only fatal illness deprived Sidney Herbert of the keys to Downing Street.