Georgiana

I have just finished the Amanda Foreman 1998 biography of the Duchess of Devonshire, in anticipation of getting a head start when we get around to watching the new film.

As a biography it is cetainly a good read. Happily it is not too long, and there is not too much unnecessary detail, from which I find that too many biographies suffer. That is a great plus point for me. And yet the words and the beautiful illustations - I read the illustrated version - brought vividly into view the extraordinary life of this remarkable woman. In short it is a compelling history lesson.

My over-riding impression is that whilst Georgiana is acclaimed as a great lady of her times, she was actually not someone for whom I would have a great respect for to-day!

That the duchess was a compulsive gambler there is no doubt. If gamblers anonymous had existed then, she'd've been the biggest client on their books. She owed the present day equivalent of millions which her husband the duke, when she finally told him, mostly refused to honour. That such wealth can go hand in hand with such irresponsible indebtedness is I think nothing short of breathtaking.

That her marriage was a disaster is also without question; I also found their etiquette with respect to marital fidelity nothing short of incredible, given that the ruling classes of the day should set an example. Loose almost doesn't begin to describe it. It's not her fault that she married unhappily, and yet I'm not at all sure she dealt with the consequences as well as she should have.

Whilst Georgiana clearly loved her children, she nonetheless abandoned them for months on end to hired help and relations. Unsurprisingly they emerged from childhood with problems and hang-ups. I find that almost unforgivable.

She is acclaimed as a politician, and her role in the Whig party seems to have been as mediator to quell the infighting between the petty minded party members, including the dreadful Prince Of Wales. Reading of their antics makes the politics of the day seem entirely trivial. It is surprising to then that this was the back-drop to the period when we won Trafalgar and saw off Napoleon.

And yet in spite of my misgivings- there is something about Georgiana that I cannot stop myself warming to. She was courageous and witty. She was outgoing and generous of spirit. She was also quite a beauty.

All in all it is a hugely enjoyable book, and I have learnt from it a great deal about the life and times in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries - not a period of history I have been much familiar with.