• Hardback
• First Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• 242 pages
• Fiction: Historical

In 1764, the great Samuel Johnson, irascible genius, unparalleled wit and the toast of all society, is plagued by ill health and has become jaded with his bickering dependants. Suffering from a bout of melancholy, he accepts an introduction to the table of Henry Thrale, a wealthy Southwark brewer, and his vivacious wife Hester. Thus begins an extraordinary relationship that is to last twenty years - and allows us into a world unknown to James Boswell.

As Johnson settles into the generous niche established for him in the Thrales' crowded and hectic household, he comes increasingly to rely upon Hester Thrale, and their intimate friendship develops into something darker and more ambiguous. The family is drawn into the raucous, chaotic caravan of Johnson's friends and admirers: Garrick and Goldsmith, Fanny Burney and Joshua Reynolds, sycophants, scholars and drunkards, and it is left to Hester's neglected oldest daughter, named after her mother but known as Queeney, prodigiously clever, spirited and mocking, to provide her own sharp commentary on the destruction that ensues.