The First Lord Nanther clearly hoped to be the subject of an admiring posthumous biography. Having built a name for himself as Queen Victoria's favoured physician - expert on blood diseases and particularly the royal disease of haemophilia - he fastidiously set about recording the details of his eminent life, carefully cataloguing every significant letter, diary and medical essay that he'd written. But when the present Lord Nanther begins to research the life of his great-grandfather, he soon realises there is little of interest in his ancestor's dry-as-dust account. Indeed, he begins to suspect that these old records conceal more than they reveal . . .

Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has won many awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger and two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America. She has also won the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.

Robert Powell famously portrayed Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth. He was Richard Hannay in The Thirty-Nine Steps, won the Best Actor Award at the Paris Film Festival for Harlequin, and was deemed Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in Imperative. He co-starred in The Detectives with Jasper Carrott, while among his many other television appearances are Holby City, Jude the Obscure and The Golden Years.