A World on Fire - An Epic History of Two Nations Divided(ISBN=9780141040585)

　　No two nations have ever existed on the face of the earth which could do each other so much good or so much harm' - President Buchanan, State of the Nation Address, 1859. "A World on Fire" tells, with extraordinary sweep, one of the least known great stories of British and American history. As America descended into Civil War, British loyalties were torn between support for the North, which was against slavery, and defending the South, which portrayed itself as bravely fighting for its independence. Rallying to their respective causes, thousands of Britons went to America as soldiers - fighting for both Union and Confederacy - racing ships through the Northern blockades, and as observers, nurses, adventurers, guerillas and spies. At the heart of this international conflict lay a complicated and at times tortuous relationship between four individuals: Lord Lyons, the painfully shy British Ambassador in Washington; William Seward, the blustering US Secretary of State; Charles Francis Adams, the dry but fiercely patriotic U.S. ambassador in London; and, the restless and abrasive Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell.

　　Amanda Foreman is the author of the international bestseller Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1999) which has been translated into thirteen languages and won the Whitbread Prize for Biography. She is currently a research fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. She is married with five children.