As important members of the circles around Byron and the Romantics in the early nineteenth century, Pre-Raphaelite writers and artists in the Victorian period, and Virginia Woolf’s Bloomsbury world in the modernist age, several generations of the Lushington family played central roles in the story of British literature and culture. David Taylor charts this lost history and illuminates it with wit, scholarly intelligence, and a dedicated researcher’s passion.

- Margaret D. Stetz, University of Delaware,

Without any need for fame, the Lushingtons knew and influenced an astonishing number of public figures and events throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. This is a fascinating book about a family with their fingers in every pie.

- Julian Fellowes, creator of “Downton Abbey”,

At the core of this fascinating study are the riches of the Lushington archives. David Taylor has not only used this resource to the fullest, but has also followed the threads outwards into the life of the nation. He paints a vivid and engaging picture of a cultivated, well-connected, and affluent professional family of individuals who took full and creative part in all that they encountered.

- Gillian Sutherland, Newnham College,