Defiance: The Life and Choices of Lady Anne Barnard - Hardcover

Lady Anne Barnard lived at the heart of Georgian society - the Prince of Wales was a friend, and Walter Scott admired her verses - but her defiance of convention made her an outsider. Drawing on her unpublished papers, including six volumes of memoirs, this thrilling biography brings the poet, musician, artist and hostess vividly to life, and tells how she travelled to France to observe the Revolution, married an army officer twelve years her junior, and raised an illegitimate child.

'An eccentric life, wonderfully told. Lady Anne Barnard was a brave traveller, artist and observer. Stephen Taylor brings her brilliantly out of the shadows.' Author: Stella Tillyard

A shrewd and wonderfully vivid contribution to that extraordinary period. I loved it. Source: Miranda Seymour

Scrupulous, affectionate and well-written - the product of an author who unusually combines the virtues of both journalist and scholar ... This book is a curiosity, full of specialised pleasures, with a fascinating twist in its final pages ... The greatest pleasure is Anne Barnard herself, with whom we become familiar through the previously untapped resource of her own words. A broad-minded, witty, unashamedly egalitarian and romantic woman [whose] appetite for life speaks to us across the centuries. Author: Virginia Nicholson Source: The Times

A captivating portrait of a woman of huge courage, talent and warmth, a true life-enhancer who seems as vitally alive on Taylor's pages as she must have been to those who loved her. Author: Lucy Moore Source: Literary Review

[Lady Anne Barnard's] story is a remarkable one ... and Stephen Taylor is the first biographer to reveal her secrets ... he has found a goldmine in these memoirs and his enjoyable book allows Anne to tell her own story. She should be welcomed as a courageous and eccentric newcomer to the 18th-century scene. Author: Jane Ridley Source: Spectator