Byron's daughter, Ada Lovelace, was born in 1815 just after the Battle of Waterloo, and died aged only thirty-six, soon after the Great Exhibition of 1851. Her life embodies the seismic changes then taking place. This was the era in which romance split away from reason, instinct from intellect and art from science. But in contrast to her poet father, Ada's passion was for mathematics and her pioneering work with Charles Babbage has rightly led to her being credited with the invention of computer programming.

Benjamin Woolley's acclaimed biography is a fascinating examination of Ada's remarkable life, and affords devastating insight into the seemingly unbridgeable gulf between art and science, the consequences of which are still with us two centuries after her death.

'Absorbing, meticulous and beautifully written' Independent on Sunday

'Enthralling' Sunday Times

'Woolley has a great story to tell and does it with racy vigour' Daily Telegraph