Robert Adam's name is synonymous with taste, style and elegance and his mark can be seen in the finest architecture and interiors of the Georgian era.

Son of Scotland's leading architect, he became the most influential designer in England and later helped shape the splendour of Edinburgh. Adam's exquisitely proportioned neo-classical designs ranged in scale from candelabra and fireplaces to Kedleston, Kenwood and Bath's Pulteney Bridge. He combined public commissions such as the Admiralty Screen in Whitehall and the Register House in Edinburgh with work on great private houses, where he was as visionary in the decoration of interiors as he was ingenious in the design of exteriors.

In this fully illustrated biography, Richard Tames details the life of a man who inspired one obituary writer to declare that Adam had produced a total change in the architecture of Britain.