A collection of fourteen essays covering subjects such as: Isaac Foot (the author's father), William Hazlitt, Benjamin Disraeli, Beaverbrook, Bonar Thompson, Bertrand Russell, H N Brailsford, Ignazio Silone, Vicky (the cartoonist), Randolph Churchill, Thomas Paine, Daniel Defoe, Sarah, The Duchess of Marlborough, and Jonathan Swift.