Kirsten Ellis

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In all ways, Lady Hester Stanhope pushed the boundaries of what was considered possible - or acceptable - almost two centuries ago. She refused to accept that it was preposterous for a woman to think of herself as any man's equal.

Historians and biographers have always cast Lady Hester Stanhope as the classic English eccentric living out a romantic if ultimately tragic, even macabre, fantasy. Yet that was only a small part of her remarkable story. An early failed love affair and suicide attempt left a lasting trauma. Her much-loved younger half-brother and the man she intended to marry died together on the same battlefield. Dark secrets kept her family divided. But she was always ambitious. When Napoleon's imperial dreams threatened to crush Britain, her uncle, Prime Minister William Pitt, told her, 'If you were a man, Hester, I would send you on the Continent with 60,000 men, and give you carte blanche and I am sure that not one of my plans would fail.' He was only half-joking.

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