Stephen Taylor is the author of the new biography Defiance: The Extraordinary Life of Lady Anne Barnard. Born in 1772, she was known for defying convention. His other books include Commander and Storm and Conquest. A former journalist for The Times, he lives in Windsor, England.
Q: Why did you
choose to write a biography of Lady Anne Barnard, and how was the book's title
chosen?
A: I knew her as an
interesting but neglected subject. She spent three years in Africa from 1798 and
was one of those indomitable women travellers – there were a few – in the early
days of the British Empire, a free spirit who mixed as easily with indigenous people
as with the aristocrats she had known in London society where she was a leading
figure.
That suggested the
title. She was an aristocrat herself, but always unconventional even by the standards
of a raffish era. Her rejection of at least 12 proposals from the rich and
famous attracted plenty of gossip as well as disapproval. “Eccentric,” said
many who knew her, but also “the devil in scarlet” according to one.
Q: How did you
research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
What struck me in
the years I spent with them is how painfully honest about herself Anne was. In
an age when women generally pruned their writings of anything intimate, hers
can be utterly raw.
But as well as
self-disclosure, what Anne’s memoirs provide is a fresh insight into her times.
She lived right at the heart of London society in a bawdy age so there were plenty
of escapades. She played a central role in the Prince of Wales’s secret
marriage and went off to observe France during the Revolution while in the
throes of a turbulent love affair.
Q: You write of
Anne's decision to take in her husband's child, Christina, "As her final
act of defiance, it was also the most enduring." How would you describe
the relationship between Anne and Christina, and what did it say about Anne's
personality?
A: For a woman to
acknowledge her husband’s daughter by an African woman and bring her back to
London was the brave part. The point is that although the Georgians were quite forgiving
about male infidelity, they were less understanding in matters of race,
particularly those then referred to as “Hottentots.”
For Anne to raise Christina
as her own and provide for her so she could go on and marry a landed Englishman
was the enduring bit.
Since the book’s
publication in Britain I have been contacted by descendants of Christina. They knew
they had an ancestor of African origin but not the story of how she came to be in
London.
One of the
descendants has a family diary which showed how Christina was educated by Anne
and taught to play the harp and sing at musical salons. Another wrote, “What a
remarkable woman Anne was, and thanks to her we are all here today.”
Q: How would you
describe Anne's legacy today?
A: Both literary
and artistic. What I hope my book will do is send others to the memoirs which
it seems to me still have plenty of mileage in them for historians. And that
her wonderful watercolours and sketches from Africa may be published.
I also go back to
her vision for Africa. When she set off on a wagon tour of the interior in 1799,
the British saw the Cape as no more than a strategic bastion.
Anne did her best
to convince powerful friends at home that Africa too had potential. “Here is
scarcity, but here will be plenty,” she wrote to one. “It is in the power of
activity to make this the finest scene in the world by planting.”
Q: What are you
working on now?
A: As well as
Africa, I have an abiding interest in seafaring. Three of my previous books are
connected with the sea. So I am back working a subject that has already taken
some years – a kind of group biography of the common seaman in the age of sail.
Ordinary folk only, though. No officers.
Q: Anything else
we should know?
A: Playing the
piano doesn’t get any easier in your late 60s, but it’s still a relief from
searching for the right words.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
No comments:
Post a Comment