What a great way to see life in pre-Victorian England. Here's a man born into a family that was quickly falling out of the middle class. He came of age and became his family's provider, but during a brilliant career became a royal peer.
Want to see 19 century upward mobility in Britain? Read this. Incredible.
First read this in 2016 and really enjoyed it. Having recently finished Clive's book on Macaulay I have reread this and am blown away at how readable and well written this short biography is. It also explains, better than I have seen elsewhere, why Macaulay's history is at once so good yet is now superceded. Highly recommended