A delicious, grippingly paced tale of rogues, riotous sex, regicide and realpolitik. If that review from The Independent doesnt grab your interest, nothing will. No public figure in Britain today can come close to the stature of George Villiers in the early 17th century. Born into a family of minor gentry, he rose to become Lord High Admiral and Duke of Buckingham, acting as right-hand man to King James I of England, as well as being his confidant and lover. He was a master horseman, a dazzling dancer and, according to the Bishop of Gloucester, the handsomest-bodied man in all of England. Artists from Van Dyck to Rubens flocked to paint his portrait. If Buckingham is a biographers gift, Hughes-Hallett takes full advantage, drawing out not only his more obvious attributes but also his modesty, pragmatism and capacity for hard work. The Scapegoat will charm you, just as its subject charmed all around him. Hughes-Hallett is the author of four works of non-fiction, a novel and a volume of short stories, and in 2025 was given the Biographers Club Award for an Exceptional Contribution to Biography.