The Pinchbeck Peer: Book 8

Description

It is 1804 and Bonaparte is apparently threatening invasion across the Channel. Billy Pitt has returned to Downing Street, no more than a shadow of the man he used to be, port wine and overwork, both in massive quantities, having broken him. Fabius is called to assist his old master and displays his familiar ruthless perception of his duty, establishing himself again as a valuable servant of the State. The family is growing up and England is in a period of rapid change, the old certainties lost, the new not yet established. It is a time for the clever man, and occasionally woman, to flourish.