Faithful handmaid - Hester Davenport

On 14th June 1798, Fanny Burney, Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, shared the happiness of the Court at the return of King George III from a period of "madness", writing in her diary of her "joy amounting to extacy; I could not keep my eyes dry all day".;For five years at Court, Burney was witness to the turbulent goings-on of the King's reign: the assassination attempt on the King, royal visits to the spa at Tunbridge Wells and elsewhere, the trial of Warren Hastings, and the King's "madness". Alongside the royal story and the depiction of the events of the times, we share Fanny's personal life, in particular the tale of her courtship and jilting by the equerry Stephen Digby, and her growing fame and fortune as a novelist.;When Fanny joined the Court in 1786, she was already famous: "Evelina" had been a sensaton, its author's proclaimed anonymity causing the book to become discussed in circles that ranged from the royals to Dr Johnson. However, life at Court, with its rigid routines and extraordinary personalities, proved to be a strange existance for the novice. While she admired and loved the King and Queen and their family, she became increasingly dispirited by the contemptuous attitude of her superior, Mrs Schwellenberg. Colonel Stephen Digby, an equerry, appeared to pursue her, but married someone else, so Fanny turned her attention to a new literary form: the tragedy. Finally, her health gave way under the physical and mental strain of Court life and her father sanctioned her resignation.