A personal portrait of the victor of Waterloo, drawing on his own vast correspondence and the letters and memoirs of those who knew him best.

A story of middle-class professional couples who employ full-time live-in nannies to look after their children. The nannies meet up as a collective group, and often discuss their employers' habits in sordid detail. As the plot develops, it becomes clear that most of the nannies are usually stuck in the middle of domestic unsettlement, affairs, neurotic partners, and manipulation.