* Review coverage anticipated * www.virago.co.uk

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA

' ... a writer of fearless originality' GUARDIAN

'Unlike many authors of popular historical biographies, du Maurier resembled Antonia Fraser in being an indefatigable researcher' FRANCIS KING

'du Maurier has no equal' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

It wasn't until he was forty-five that Bacon's feet found the first step on that staircase, when King James I made him Solicitor-General, from where he rose through the ranks to become Lord Chancellor.

Many accounts of the life of Sir Francis Bacon have been written for scholars, but du Maurier's aim was to paint a vivid portrait of this remarkable man for the common reader. In The Winding Stair, she illuminates the considerable achievements of this Renaissance man as a writer, lawyer, philosopher, scientist, and politician.

To her book, she brought the same gifts of imagination and perception that made her earlier biography, Golden Lads, so immensely readable, skilfully threading into her narrative extracts from contemporary documents and from Bacon's own writings. This also sets her account of his life within a vivid contemporary framework.

This is truly history made alive.

"... a writer of fearless originality" - Guardian

"du Maurier has no equal" - Sunday Telegraph

"Unlike many authors of popular historical biographies, du Maurier resembled Antonia Fraser in being an indefatigable researcher" - Francis King