This book has its origins in a conference held at Knowsley Hall in 2013. The conference had as its theme ‘Art, Animals and Politics’, and these subjects can be traced through the thirteen papers presented in this volume, covering the period from 1450 to 1900. The Stanleys as patrons of both the visual and the dramatic arts are examined, as is the family involvement with natural history and with national politics. There are other cross-currents at work within this collection: for example, the roles of powerful and notable women who married into the family.

The conference boasted some distinguished speakers, who have in turn contributed to this work. The keynote speech was delivered by David Starkey, examining the involvement of the Stanley family with the foundation of the Tudor dynasty through the marriage of Henry vii’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, to Thomas Stanley, created 1st Earl of Derby by the monarch. The Stanleys subsequently fell from favour, and Margaret distanced herself from her husband. Starkey concentrates on the ‘piety and power’ of Margaret Beaufort, and examines the significance of her patronage of Bishop Fisher, leaving a legacy which resonated in the English Reformation.

Another paper was delivered by the possibly even more famous Sir David Attenborough. Unsurprisingly, he concentrated on an aspect of the Stanleys’ association with natural history: their patronage of Edward Lear and of Lear’s period of residence at Knowsley, where he made studies of the animals in the 13th Earl’s menagerie. This is a subject taken up and expanded by further papers dealing both with the significance of the animals collected in the menagerie, and of Edward Lear’s subsequent career as a landscape artist. The patronage of the visual arts is an important theme in the book, with further chapters on the significance of the art collection of the 10th Earl, a century earlier, and the role of the artists who acted as his agents in recommending and purchasing artworks.

The Stanleys were also committed patrons of the dramatic arts, with some very early involvement in the history of the theatre. A fascinating paper looks at how the small town of Prescot, on the borders of the Knowsley estate, came to be the location of the only freestanding, purpose-built, indoor theatre outside London in the Elizabethan period. A further chapter considers the role of another notable Stanley wife, the actress Elizabeth Ferren (who married the 12th Earl), and looks particularly at various depictions of her, from the famous Richardson portrait to Gilray cartoons.

The final section of the book is devoted to restoring the significance of the ‘political’ earls of the nineteenth century. One paper cogently argues for a reassessment of the significance of the 14th Earl’s premiership for the history both of Britain and of the Conservative party. Another picks its way through the 15th Earl’s role in the eastern crisis of the 1870s. The final chapter assesses the role of yet another Stanley wife: this time Mary, wife of the 15th Earl, who herself maintained an active interest in politics.

The book is certainly eclectic in its scope, but is written at a level that the papers hold interest for non-specialists in a particular area. It must also be commended for the standard of illustration; as befits a work so concerned with the visual arts, it contains many beautiful, well-reproduced images. My only quibble is the absence of any dedicated treatment of one area of animal history that the earls of Derby are most associated with: the development of horseracing and the English thoroughbred horse.