The Brunels
The Brunel family in Building Passions included three generations starting with the patriarch Sir Marc Brunel (engineer of the Thames Tunnel in London).
His son Isambard Kingdom Brunel (architect of Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol and engineer of the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol) was once voted the second greatest Briton of all time after Winston Churchill. The book highlights his significant engineering achievements including the construction of the gargantuan SS Great Eastern.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel's younger son Henry Marc (civil engineer of Tower Bridge with Sir John Wolfe Barry) couldn't quite emerge out of the vast shadows of his father and grandfather.