{"product_id":"2026200016000-secondhand-the-half-mad-lord-thomas-pitt-2nd-baron-camelford-1775-1804","title":"The Half-Mad Lord: Thomas Pitt 2Nd Baron Camelford (1775-1804)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehind every age of empire lurks a figure too wild, too reckless, and too combustible to be contained by its conventions — and Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford, was precisely such a man. The Half-Mad Lord chronicles the turbulent life of one of Regency Britain's most notorious aristocrats, a man of extraordinary privilege and volcanic temperament whose brief 29 years were packed with naval insubordination, street brawls, political scandal, and a fatal duel that shocked even a society well-accustomed to violent excess. Nikolai Tolstoy reconstructs Camelford's world with forensic precision, drawing on historical records to present a portrait of a brilliant but dangerously unhinged nobleman navigating the rigid hierarchies of late 18th-century Britain.\n\nTolstoy's biographical approach is both rigorous and compulsively readable, situating Camelford's erratic behaviour within the broader social and political tensions of a nation at war with Napoleonic France. The biography raises searching questions about the nature of madness, class, and the cult of masculine honour that defined the Georgian era. As much a social history as a personal portrait, this work illustrates how institutions — the Royal Navy, Parliament, and the aristocracy itself — both shaped and were threatened by men who refused to conform. Readers left wondering whether Camelford was a tragic visionary or simply a catastrophe in a titled coat will find no easy answers here.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49342772969691,"sku":"2026200016000-SECONDHAND","price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/66c20dec-b033-4415-97fd-9d60b8e038fb.png?v=1790049030","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200016000-secondhand-the-half-mad-lord-thomas-pitt-2nd-baron-camelford-1775-1804","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}