Earl Mountbatten of Burma has always been regarded as a leading figure in British public life and the Royal Family. During World War II he was Chief of the Combined Staff in the invasion of Europe and Supreme Allied Commander in the Far East. He accepted Japanese surrender and returned to Britain as a war hero. He then became Viceroy of India and after the war joined the Labour cabinet of Clement Attlee. But there are many things about Mountbatten that are not so well known - for instance his obsession with his influence on the royal family has never been fully explored or explained. Churchill could not stand him personally. He was arguably the vainest man who ever lived. His marriage was a successful if open one, both Mountbatten and his wife conducting extra-marital affairs and his bisexual appetites were fairly widely known.