Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance

(Paperback)

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An engaging portrait of the surprisingly unconventional marriage between Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli from one of our best young non-fiction writers. He was a debt-ridden dandy, a mid-ranking novelist armed with enormous political ambition. She was a moneyed widow twelve years older than her new husband, always overdressed for society dinners and never one to hold her tongue. From the outset, Mary Anne and Benjamin Disraeli made an unlikely match, yet they rose to the very pinnacle of Victorian society. Drawing on the couple's love letters and Mary Anne's own formidable archives, Daisy Hay reveals the heady mix of romance and power that fuelled their influence - and chronicles how the Disraelis crafted their unconventional marriage into an enduring love story.

Reviews

A tour de force, written with intelligence and compassion * The Times *
Thorough and engaging... A warm and rounded portrait * Daily Telegraph *
A fabulous book, as if Jane Austen were writing for a modern newspaper... Full of wonderfully observed detail... A great story of life and loves in a time when making the right marriage really mattered * Independent *
All marriages have their mysteries, political marriages more than most. The marriage of Mr and Mrs Disraeli was stranger than fiction, but every bit as compelling -- Robert McCrum * The Observer *
A beguiling account of a very unusual marriage -- Daisy Goodwin * Sunday Times *
As with all the best biographers, Hay makes her readers drag their feet towards the end, reluctant to part company with people she has made us know and feel for. Her book has turned the Disraelis uneven romance into a real love story. How pleased they would have been * Guardian *

Author Bio

Daisy Hay is an award-winning biographer whose previous work includes Young Romantics- The Shelleys, Byron and Other Tangled Lives and Mr and Mrs Disraeli- A Strange Romance. She began her writing career as a doctoral student and then a Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge before moving to Oxford where she held the Alistair Horne Fellowship at St Antony's College and a Visiting Scholarship at the Oxford Centre for Life Writing at Wolfson College. She has also held a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard. In 2016 she was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize by the Leverhulme Trust and in 2018 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She is currently Associate Professor in English Literature and Life Writing at the University of Exeter and lives in Devon with her family.