Lady Maclean set out to visit - and interview - 25 monarchs all over the world as she wanted to know what place there is for a system of government that has existed for over 6000 years. Lady Maclean's quest - sometimes alone, sometimes in the company of her husband, Sir Fitzroy Maclean - led her across Europe, into southern Africa, through the Middle East and into Asia and the Pacific. Whereas in Europe monarchies have settled down into a variety of constitutional roles, elsewhere the future does not always look so secure. Indeed in one country the monarch was actually overthrown during her stay and she ended up interviewing him in Britain, to where he had fled in exile.