Albert Smith was one of the greatest showmen of the 19th century. For almost a decade, his entertainments at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly were as popular as Madame Tussaud's and the Tower of London, 'Mr Albert Smith's Ascent of Mont Blanc', his most spectacular entertainment, ran for two thousand performances and earned him thirty thousand pounds.

Smith was a considerable figure in the literary and theatrical circles of early Victorian London. His dramas, burlesques and extravaganzas were frequently performed ; his novels were popular in the circulating libraries; he was passionately interested in ballooning, although he nearly lost his life in one when the balloon burst and came down quicker than it went up.

He roused violent feelings in his contemporaries - some loved him, others detested him. He was not a gentleman - only a bohemian and the enmity between bohemians and gentlemen culminated in the famous Garrick Club Affair when Smith took a stand with Dickens against Thackeray and his supporters.

This is the story of Albert Smith from his early days as a medical student in the Latin Quarter of Paris to his final years in London. The years between were filled with travel, and the scene of the book is constantly changing from bohemian London with its friendships and feuds, to a diligence rumbling southwards from Paris to Geneva; to the Rhine and Rigi; to Constantinople and Cairo; to China, where Smith paid a flying visit; and to Chamonix, for his most famous exploit - the much-ublicised ascent of Mont Blanc, which caused an outbreak of 'Mont Blanc mania' among his fellow countrymen.