Edwin James was regarded in the 1850s as one of the leading advocates of the day and was sought out by attorneys to act in the most scandalous cases of the era. A successful Queen's Counsel he was elected twice as Member of Parliament for Marylebone and the first Recorder of Brighton. He was about to be chosen by Lord Palmerston as Solicitor General, which would have led automatically to a knighthood but the legal and political world was shocked when he resigned his clubs, his Parliamentary seat and was disbarred. Rumours were rife but all that was really known was that his fall was due to "certain private incidents". He fled to the States but was soon in disgrace there and died in poverty in England in 1881. In this riveting account of the man's life Roy Lewis strips aside the rumours and exposes the real facts--not least James's involvement in the greatest forgery scandal of the age.