London, the summer of 1858: as a choking miasma drives the citys elite into retreat, Sir Edwin Landseer works himself to the brink. England demands its lions, four monumental beasts to guard Nelsons Column, and after fifteen years of delay, failure is not an option. But as the bronze creatures stalk his alcoholsoaked dreams, Landseers mind slips between fever and memory.

In his dreams, he is no longer a celebrated artist unravelling under pressure, but the brilliant unknown young painter he once was. The story sweeps across decades, from the squalor and splendour of Victorian London back to the waning Regency, when the irresistible Duchess - older, captivating, and far beyond his station - first storms into his life.

Noble Beasts weaves the misted romance of the Scottish Highlands with the charged history of Trafalgar Square. It follows Landseers fraught ties to the Royal Academy and the Queen herself, tracing the turbulent path that ends in his declaration of insanity in 1872. And it delves into the notorious rumour: that the young artist famed for painting dogs, deer, and the Monarch of the Glen may have taken far more from the Duke of Bedford than artistic commissions.