This selection of Portraits gives pride of place to the secondary figures who make the wheels of history whir and thrum. They include Churchill’s half-forgotten right-hand man, a leading light of the Parisian Belle Epoque lost to history, and an early space pioneer virtually unknown outside of his native Russia. History belongs not only to the popularly renowned but also to the other figures, the men and women who found their energies suddenly borne along by events or who made a unique contribution to the great debates of their time. Leading writers show us how these individuals shaped the world as we know it, examining their successes as much as their failures and delusions.

In these portraits we find the dim traces left by interesting lives lived and conscientiously restore them, so that they gleam once more, bright and alive in the present.
These 25 intruiging portraits are printed in separate booklets collected in a beautiful box.

Contributing writers:
James Barr, Gillian Clark,
Armand D’Angour, Daisy Dunn,
Peter Frankopan, Jessica Frazier,
Laura Freeman, Lawrence Freedman,
Maria Golia, Matthew Goodwin,
James Hardie, Vanessa Harding,
Rob Johnson, Paul Lay, Alexander Lee,
Tim Marshall, Jenny McCartney,
Rana Mitter, Catherine Ostler,
Agnès Poirier, Andrew Roberts,
Dominic Sandbrook, Graham Stewart,
Andrew Wilton and Adrian Wooldridge.