Jane Brown — My Darling Heriott

HarperCollins Publishers 2006 Paperback, 320pp. Henrietta St John was born on St Swithun’s Day in 1699 into a world of wealth, privilege and seeming security. Beloved sister of rake and statesman. Viscount Bolingbroke, she grew up in Hogarthian London and Wiltshire, her ancestral home, into a headstrong woman of poetry and letters – Pope, Swift and Gay were amongst her acquaintance. Yet with more wit and intelligence than was good for a high-ranking woman of her time and a wild mane of dark curly hair, Henrietta was not the easiest of marriage propositions. She succumbed at twenty-seven, with her infatuation for the son of the infamous and exiled South Sea Company chief cashier. Soon afterwards, she was accused by her pompous husband of infidelity with a young poet, and sent into the country to moulder and die. Large. Page edges foxing, Cover fading and slightly wrinkled on spine. (ISBN: 9780007235704). Good.