"Caroline was besotted with Byron. But, ungrateful love rat that he was, he set off chasing others"

LADY ANTONIA FRASER talks to Ellie Cawthorne about her biography of Caroline Lamb, the rule-breaking aristocrat whose affair with the great romantic poet scandalised Georgian society

- Ellie Cawthorne

Ellie Cawthorne: Why did you want to write a biography of Lamb? What was it about her that intrigued you?

Lady Antonia Fraser: During lockdown, I dusted a room that I haven’t dusted for years, which is full of books, like every room in this house. A book fell on my foot, and it was a biography of Lady Caroline Lamb. You hear about all that stuff with Byron, and how William Lamb, the man she married, became prime minister. And I thought: I wonder what she was like, really And as it turned out, she was a real rulebreaker.

Yes, it seems that she had that reputation as a rulebreaker even from childhood. Can you tell us a bit about her upbringing?

Caroline [born in 1785] grew up as part of the ‘Devonshire House Set’. On paper, her upbringing was very grand, living across a variety of great houses such as Chatsworth [Derbyshire] and Spencer House [Westminster], with countesses as her grandmothers, and a duchess as an aunt. But in reality it was extremely eccentric. Her mother, Harriet, and her aunt – the famous society figure Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire – had 10 children between them. Three of these were politely known as ‘children of the mist’, meaning they were illegitimately conceived with lovers. So from an early age, Caroline was surrounded by unconventional, strong-minded women.

Caroline herself was a sweet girl but very naughty. She was eccentric, exhibitionist, and loved attention. But in many ways she was very kind, too. There’s one story about her walking about the beaches where she lived, picking up little boys and educating them.