Isolated and arrestingly beautiful, the island of Capri has been a refuge for renegade artists and writers fleeing the strictures of conventional society from the time of Augustus, who bought the island in 29 BC after defeating Antony and Cleopatra. In the 20th century, the poet and novelist Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen was in exile there after being charged with corrupting minors, and on these shores we also meet the Marquis de Sade, Goethe, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Compton Mackenzie, Rilke, Capote, Lenin, and Gorky, among other astonishingly vivid characters. Grounded in a deep intimacy with Capri and full of captivating anecdotes, Jamie James's history tells how a tiny island became a haven for people who had nowhere else to go.