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