This book is not a con­ven­tional bi­og­ra­phy. It grew out of the se­ries of tele­vi­sion pro­grammes Mis­tress of Hard­wick which set out to tell the story of that for­mi­da­ble woman of prop­erty, dy­nast and cre­ative ge­nius who be­came suc­ces­sively Mrs Robert Bar­low, Lady Cavendish, Lady St Loe and Count­ess of Shrews­bury, but who is bet­ter known as Bess of Hard­wick - a woman out­stand­ing in an age of out­stand­ing women and as renowned in her own sphere as her con­tem­po­rary Queen Eliz­a­beth.