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Susannah Harker reads from the story of how, within three generations, the illustrious family of the poet Lord Byron disintegrated into adultery, debt, elopement, coercion and murder.

In 1798 a small, bewildered boy of ten from Aberdeen – whom the world would later come to know as Lord Byron, the Romantic poet, soldier, and adventurer – first laid eyes on Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire, the Byron family seat he had just inherited. His family, he would come to learn, had in recent decades become infamous for almost unfathomable levels of scandal and impropriety, from elopement, murder, and kidnapping to adultery, coercion, and thrilling near-death experiences at sea. Just as it had shocked the society of Georgian London, the outlandish and scandalous story of the Byrons – and the myths that began to rise around it – would influence his life and poetry for posterity.

In this final episode, we learn of the scandalous life of the poet’s father, mad Jack, who dragged the family name to a new low with his womanising, gambling, drinking and cruelty.

At 22, he returned from undistinguished service in the army to embrace the life of a rakish young London bachelor. And he was promptly swept up in an affair that would alter the course of his life.

The irresistible pull of his attraction to Amelia, Lady Carmarthen, could not be stifled by the inconvenient existence of her husband, or even her three infant children. Having worked his way through Amelia’s fortune and driven her to an early death, he looked for another wealthy bride. His next unfortunate victim was the young Scottish heiress Catherine Gordon who was to become the mother of the poet Lord Byron.

Written by Emily Brand
Abridged and produced by Jane Greenwood
Read by Susannah Harker
A Loftus Media production for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4