R.S.S. Baden-Powell, who founded the Boy Scouts movement in 1908, was a British military hero during the Boer War and an author, actor, artist, spy, sportsman, and female impersonator. In this absorbing and humane account of Baden-Powell’s extraordinary life, Tim Jeal reveals for the first time the complex figure behind the saintly public mask, showing him to be a man of both dazzling talents and crippling secret fears.

Reviews of the earlier edition:

“Baden-Powell’s life story is as rich and engrossing as any of his memorable campfire yarns . . . a monumental biography.”—Zara Steiner, New York Times Book Review

“In an age of good biographies, here is one that deserves to be called great . . . a magnificent book.”—Piers Brendon, Mail on Sunday

“Jeal’s Baden-Powell is brave and self-seeking, devious and honorable, a domestic paragon whose repressed homosexuality fired his career, a soldier of genius who ultimately rejected militarism. . . . The story that Tim Jeal has to tell is epic, funny, and touching.”—Philip Oakes, New Statesman

“Superb.”—Ian Buruma, New York Review of Books

"'Baden-Powell's life story is as rich and engrossing as any of his memorable campfire yarns... a monumental biography.' Zara Steiner, New York Times Book Review 'In an age of good biographies, here is one that deserves to be called great... a magnificent book.' Piers Brendon, Mail on Sunday 'Jeal's Baden-Powell is brave and self-seeking, devious and honorable, a domestic paragon whose repressed homosexuality fired his career, a soldier of genius who ultimately rejected militarism... The story that Tim Jeal has to tell is epic, funny, and touching.' Philip Oakes, New Statesman 'Superb.' Ian Buruma, New York Review of Books"

Tim Jeal is also the biographer of Henry Morton Stanley (National Book Critics' Circle Award in Biography and Sunday Times Biography of the Year 2007), and Robert Baden-Powell, which (like Livingstone) was chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and the Washington Post. In 2011 his Explorers of the Nile was a New York Times Editor's Choice and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.