The Irrepressible Mary Jeune, Victorian Influencer

An entertaining biography of a forgotten Victorian celebrity, restoring a highly influential woman to her rightful place in history At the end of the 19th century Mary Jeune (pronounced June) was one of the most renowned and influential people in Britain, ostensibly through her journalism on social and women’s affairs, and her uniquely diverse salon, but also clandestinely through her connections with those in power. Spanning 85 years, from a bizarrely spartan upbringing in the Scottish Highlands to her death in 1931, this account of Jeune’s life offers fresh views of well-known figures such as Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, Millicent Fawcett, Randolph and Winston Churchill. At the same time, it contains a rogues’ gallery of eccentrics and mavericks who have since sunk, like her, into obscurity. Behind an exterior indomitable enough to inspire Wilde’s Lady Bracknell lay a far more approachable personality. This book reveals the many dimensions and contradictions of a unique Victorian. Mary Jeune had a finger in just about every pie of the time, political, social, or cultural. This biography will appeal to not only those interested in the period, but to anyone who likes to be entertained by a well-told story.