George Stepney 1663-1707 : Diplomat and Poet

'His life,' wrote Samuel Johnson, 'was busy but not long.' In his allotted span, George Stepney achieved much. A friend of Marlborough, a member of the influential Kit-Kat Club, and a respected poet, he also had a remarkable career as a diplomat. The product of ten years' research in archives throughout Europe, this first-ever biography of this important but neglected 17th-century figure charts his life and work, assesses his missions in Germany, Poland and Hungary, and evaluates his poetry.

Susan Spens M.B.E. worked for many years in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, serving in Germany, Bulgaria, Senegal and Austria. She has two degrees from London University, the second specialising in English Social and Economic History of the 16th and 17th centuries. She is now working on the Arundel rape of Sussex for the Victoria History of the Counties of England.