Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, masterminded the campaigns, alliances, treaties and pageants which brought the British Empire to its zenith in terms of power and prestige. Prime Minister for all but four years between 1885 and 1902, it was he who co-ordinated the subtly interlocking policies over five continents and a quarter of the globe. In this comprehensive biography, written with complete access to Salisbury's papers at Hatfield House, Andrew Roberts explores every aspect of Lord Salisbury's phenomenal statesmanship, but also his eccentric family, his journalism, his distinctive philosophy of Toryism, his passion for scientific experiments and above all, his extraordinary, complex, but ultimately hugely attractive character.