Emily Tennyson - Ann Thwaite

It was as a small girl in Lincolnshire that Emily Sellwood first saw the boy Alfred Tennyson. Nearly thirty years later, in the year he became Poet Laureate, they married. What kept them apart and what eventually brought them together has never before been fully explored. Readers who know little about Tennyson, as well as admirers of his poetry, will find interest in this biography of a Victorian wife who was determined to be fully involved in the work of the man she loved. Drawing on a great deal of unpublished material, Ann Thwaite presents a much more unconventional, energetic and passionate woman than the pale invalid lying on a sofa somewhere in the background of Tennyson's life. This pioneering biography establishes in detail the person Emily Tennyson was. It is the story of a remarkable family as well as a remarkable woman, bringing into the foreground a neglected and often misunderstood character a century after her death.