Mary Ann Hunn is known to history as the disreputable actress mother of the politician George Canning, a footnote to his story. Many books have been written about George, perennially controversial, which either ignore his mother, or dismiss her with a few patronising words. But here, using her own 65,000-word memoir, and the remarkable 47-year correspondence between mother and son, supplemented by the scattered testimony of contemporaries, this new work uncovers the hidden history of a strong, passionate and intelligent woman. It’s a story of hardship, humiliation and resilience; of a mother and son forced to follow widely different paths over half a century, never entirely reconciled, and yet never losing their natural affection for each other. Mary Ann’s marriage to a penniless poet, her fifteen years in the theatre, her eleven pregnancies – all play into the texture of their long and intense relationship. Mary Ann read and admired Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman on publication and her own story provides a vivid illustration of those ideas. Her father, husbands, lover, father-in-law – all the men in her life, were weak, selfish, and inadequate, and yet society placed her in their power, helpless except for her own strength of character. Only George didn’t quite let her down, and although she felt he did not love her enough, in the end she admitted that in her long, eventful life the balance of good predominated – ‘For George Canning is my Son’. This is the story of a woman's struggle to survive in the man's world of late Georgian England. It makes a fascinating contribution to the history of the provincial theatre and our understanding of attitudes to the stage, and shines important new light on the background and character of George Canning, one of the dominant and most intriguing political figures of the early nineteenth century. But at its heart is the story of a mother who lost her son when he was six and spent the next half century struggling to regain her place in his life.

This eBook edition of Lord Byron's complete works has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Table of Contents: The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 1: Fugitive Pieces Poems on Various Occasions Hours of Idleness Poems Original and Translated Early Poems from Various Sources The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 2: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 3: Poems 1809–1813 The Giaour: A Fragment of a Turkish Tale The Bride of Abydos: A Turkish Tale The Corsair Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte Lara Hebrew Melodies: She walks in Beauty The Harp the Monarch Minstrel swept If that High World The Wild Gazelle Oh! weep for those On Jordan's Banks Jeptha's Daughter Oh! snatched away in Beauty's Bloom My Soul is Dark I saw thee weep Thy Days are done Saul Song of Saul before his Last Battle "All is Vanity, saith the Preacher" When Coldness wraps this Suffering Clay Vision of Belshazzar Sun of the Sleepless! Were my Bosom as False as thou deem'st it to be Herod's Lament for Mariamne... Poems 1814–1816 The Siege of Corinth Parisina Poems of the Separation The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 4: The Prisoner of Chillon Poems of July—September, 1816: Monody on the Death of the Right Hon. R. B. Sheridan Manfred: A Dramatic Poem The Lament of Tasso Beppo: A Venetian Story Ode on Venice Mazeppa The Prophecy of Dante The Morgante Maggiore of Pulci Francesca of Rimini Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice: An Historical Tragedy The Vision of Judgment Poems 1816-1823 The Blues: A Literary Eclogue The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 5: Sardanapalus: A Tragedy The Two Foscari: An Historical Tragedy Cain: A Mystery Heaven and Earth; A Mystery Werner; or, The Inheritance: A Tragedy The Deformed Transformed: A Drama The Age of Bronze; or, Carmen Seculare et Annus haud Mirabilis The Island; or, Christian and his Comrades The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 6: Don Juan The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7: Jeux d'Esprit and Minor Poems, 1798–1824 Letters and Journals of Lord Byron Biographies: Byron by John Nichol The Life of Lord Byron by John Galt