Wilson, a respected Historian, offers a deeply researched history of 1 of Ireland's most legendary families.

In this fascinating book Derek Wilson traces the Guiness Family from it's lowly beginnings into the Protestant ascendancy to the present day through 3 main narrative threads corresponding to different lines of the family; brewing, banking and missionary work. Wilson's account suggests that the path to success for the brewery was never assured, built as it was against a background of the Napoleonic wars, the establishment of the Irish free state and Civil war, and 2 further world wars.

After some setbacks in the early 19th century Robert co-founded the Guiness Mahon banking dynasty in England. The Bank remained a family concern despite the 1929 crash and IRA kidnapping until the accidental death of John Guiness, and in 1988 the bank went under Yokohama control. The family was not without it's decorated heroes and it's professional soldiers, fighting in both world wars, the Boer war, and India. In many ways the branch of the family that went into missionary work is the most interesting, and includes 2 medical missionary brothers, 1 in China and the other 1st in the Belgian Congo where he spent much of his career campaigning against the Belgians cruelty, and then also in China during the Japanese invasion. This is not to say there weren't wastrels and eccentrics: there were, particularly in this century, and these Wilson describes with aplomb if not relish.