A collection of stories about the scandalous love lives of 14 great composers, following on from Basil Howitt's previous two volumes. It covers Bellini, Bizet, Debussy, Elgar - who began a serious romance at age 74 with a separated Jewish violinist 40 years younger - Gounod, Grainger, Handel, Mahler, Satie, Sibelius, the Strauss family - Johann Strauss notched up "at least 13 serious affairs" in his first marriage -and Verdi, who threatened to "blow his brains out" if his wife wrecked his affair with a younger singer.