Mrs Delany

“Biographer Clarissa Campbell Orr immerses you in the minutiae of Mary’s life.”—Constance Craig-Smith, Daily Mail

“The whole work resonates with the sound of not only Delany’s voice in quotations from her letters and occasional poems but also those of many of her contemporaries, which generates a highly pleasurable and instructive image of eighteenth-century sociability.”—Alain Kerherve, Burlington Magazine

“This sensitively-written book immerses the reader in the world of a cultivated and artistic eighteenth-century gentlewoman. Through a fully-researched and fascinating exploration of the familial correspondence of Mary Delany, Orr throws new and original light on the attitudes of the eighteenth-century elite to marriage, family life and the education and status of women.”—Jane Rendall, author of The Origins of Modern Feminism

“Mrs Delany’s love of gardens and natural history, combined with the dexterity of a craftswoman, led her, at over seventy, to an astonishing project: the wonderful cut-paper flower pictures for which she is now remembered. Orr gives us the Christian gentlewoman rather than the artist, in a panorama of gentry life with its many duties and constraints as well as privileges. One feels that Mrs Delany would give her blessing to the portrait.”—Norma Clarke, author of Queen of the Wits

“How was it that Mary Delany so skillfully combined a high-profile social circle, copious letter-writing and attendance at the royal court with gardening, botanical enquiry and prolific and innovative artistic endeavour? This fascinating life is both timely and revelatory.”—James Raven, What Is the History of the Book?

“Through a deep study of kinship, friendship and a large cast of characters, Orr skilfully crafts the story behind Mary Delany’s creation of nearly one thousand botanical collages as an album amicorum. With great clarity and verve, the author proves a most faithful companion to Delany and her life’s ‘work.’”—Mark Laird, author of A Natural History of English Gardening

Clarissa Campbell Orr is the author of, or editor and contributor to, numerous essays and anthologies, including Queenship in Europe 1650-1789 and Queenship in Britain 1660-1837.

She was a Visiting Research Fellow at St Mary’s University Twickenham from 2016 to 2018 after a long career at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

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