The queen's godson

A biography of one of Queen Elizabeth's many godchildren, Sir John Harington of Kelston, who was best known by contemporaries for "his invention of the first water closet and the treatise that he wrote concerning it, The Metamorphosis of Ajax.... The treatise combined a serious analysis of the problem of sanitation in large households with coded, satirical comment on the politics of his time and on those in power.... His industry was prodigious and his interests were multifarious; he started life with so many advantages that his lack of success is, in some ways, surprising. He was ambitious and there was a serious side to his nature but he failed to impress either of the two sovereigns he strove to serve as a suitable candidate for office." -- from introduction.