Sharon, Georgiana and the bananas

Sharon is enjoying listening to an audio version of the book, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who flourished and led a life of immense wealth and scandal in the late 18th century.

The book, by Amanda Foreman, received rave reviews and Sharon is greatly enjoying the audio tape version read by Celia Montague. The ISBN number is 0 7531 0691 4. Georgiana's husband, the Duke of Devonshire was one of the richest men in Britain with a vast income and at he married the 17-year-old Georgiana Spencer in 1774. She “could set a fashion simply by wearing a new hat” and she became a leading figure in the Whig Party. “However, public success hid a personal life fraught with suffering. With a husband who was impervious to her charms, she sought comfort in gambling, soon falling into a cycle of debt and dishonesty, eventually forced to leave England for a life in exile.

“After three years she returned, dishonoured and disgraced, but in the face of a collapsing Whig Party, she rose to the challenge, overcoming illness, despair and prejudice to become respected once more. A beautiful and penetrating account of one of the great figures of the late 18th century, a woman whose great beauty and flamboyance combined with determination to play a part in the affairs of the world and made her an icon of her time.”

The West has the Duke of Devonshire, either Georgiana's husband or a previous holder of the title, to thank for bananas. Great lords liked to send to China for wallpaper, particularly for the room in grand houses where the “Chinoiserie” was kept – furniture, ceramics, silver and paintings. One day the Duke was contemplating his new hand-painted wallpaper which had just arrived from Canton. He noticed a plant painted into the design that he had not seen before. He despatched a plant hunter to China to find the plant and bring him specimens for the glasshouses at Chatsworth. The plant turned out to be the banana and soon it had been introduced to the West Indies and South America. Or, at least that is how one story goes.

“This is a great book,” says Sharon. “Mind you, there are lots of names to keep track of. I think Georgiana was an ancestor of Princes Diana. And, of course, I am enjoying it all the more for the fact that it is a true account of those olden days. Thank God it is not like that now. Life is much more free now. Women aren't held back by so many things like they were then. Mind you, give me the ball gowns and the big hair of the 18th century.”

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