This is the most comprehensive life account of an Indian Civil Service (ICS) member yet available. It is based on extensive archival materials gathered in India, the United Kingdom, and Italy, as well as on extensive family archives never before available.
The story is of an extremely talented man born to an Italian father and an English mother, and who was fluent in several languages. His intellect was overshadowed by his personality which was produced both by his upbringing, and by undiagnosed medical conditions.
The result was that a man expected to rise to the top of his service never did, and he became an irritant to all his superior officers with whom he was perennially in trouble. His love for India and its people started to turn as his career dipped, and as Indian nationalism took hold.
He retired to Taly where he set up a political party that failed, and a guest house that was run in eccentric fashion.
