This is a book on many levels. It is full of light-hearted incident and period colour. It is also a biography of a family covering some 250 years. At one level, it is a book about sex, murder, mystery and black magic. At another, it is about the serious business of national politics and war. But it is also about the everyday lives of a dynasty of Dorset squires, their loves, hopes and fears, and their roles in the complexities of the British class system. The author makes several discoveries of historical importance: for example that one of his characters was the man behind Junius, the mysterious and influential eighteenth century pamphleteer, and that another was probably murdered because of the crucial role he played in the passage of the Great Reform Bill. It is a fascinating story of soldiers, actresses and a haunted house. The author also suggests some serious messages for British society today. The author, Richard Ryder, has published many types of books. One created a political stir and led to new legislation in Europe and the UK to protect laboratory animals, another was acclaimed as an original historical study and a third was a book devoted to ethics. Ryder coined the term speciesism, which has gained a place in modern philosophy and is in the Oxford English Dictionary. Ryder has also written plays, short stories and philosophical and psychological papers. With the "Calcrafts of Rempstone Hall", Ryder breaks new ground with a book that is part melodrama, part family history, and part serious political commentary on modern Britain. Ryder studied Experimental Psychology at Cambridge. has a PhD in Social and Political Science. He worked many years in the NHS and has several times been Chairman of the RSPCA Council.