... by day, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that looks after The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace State Apartments, the Banqueting House in Whitehall, and Kew Palace in Kew Gardens.

... by night, the author of 'Cavalier: a Tale of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses', published by Faber & Faber and Bloomsbury USA, and described by the 'Mail on Sunday' as 'a remarkable achievement by an immensely talented and innovative historian'.

'Cavalier' is a vivid portrait of a seventeenth-century nobleman, his household, and the dramatic decades surrounding the English Civil War. It tells the story of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, courageous and cultured, whose passions were architecture, horses and women. Above all, though, the book is about the great houses that Cavendish built. From Ben Jonson and Anthony van Dyck to long-forgotten servants, Cavalier recreates the cacophony, stink, ceremony and splendour of his stately homes and their inhabitants.