A riotously entertaining account of the lives of British and other European aristocrats - stories of madness, murder, misery, greed and profligacy.

"These irreverent accounts of the doings of abominably rich scoundrels, of sterling efforts in the sack and the inevitable bastard offspring, of bloodsports, duels and high-stakes gambling, will amuse and appal in equal measure. Find out how the British and European aristocracy - from Argyll to Wellington and from Byron to Tolstoy - bred generations of braying, tweed-clad grotesques; annoying, constipated upper-crust duffers; and, just occasionally, clever men and women who did something really useful with their time and their money"--Back cover.