'On Sunday 11 October 1896, Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, insufferable to the end, died on his knees in church saying the Confession, after a life of relentless success. At that moment his wife Mary became nobody...All this is over,A" Mary wrote in her diary, it has fallen to pieces around us.A"' Young Minnie Sidgwick met her future husband in 1849 when he was twenty and she was eight years old; he proposed to her just three years later. Through her marriage to Edward, whose career would take him from success as a young head schoolmaster to become Archbishop of Canterbury, Mary Benson came to preside over Lambeth Palace and a social circle that ranged from famous politicians and celebrated writers to Queen Victoria herself. But Mrs Benson's most intense and intimate relationships were not with her husband, but with other women. Freed from her intense but largely unhappy marriage after the Archbishop's death, Mary moved out of London with her friend Lucy Tait to preside over a very different Home Counties world, dominated by her brood of fiercely eccentric and talented children, each as unlikely and individual as herself. Drawing on the diaries and novels of the Bensons themselves, as well as writings of contemporaries from George Eliot to Queen Victoria, Rodney Bolt tells the sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious, story of one lovable, brilliant woman and her trajectory through the often surprising opportunities and the remarkable limitations of a Victorian woman's life.
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Review
'A lively and exemplary approach to research... A sort of Benson family scrapbook. Admirable.' --The Times
'Much of the joy of this effervescent biography is in its detail... At the heart is an extraordinary woman...who deserves to be written and read about.' --Independent on Sunday
`Mary Benson is lucky to have a champion in Rodney Bolt who rescues her from the sidelines of history with As Good As God, As Clever As the Devil which is sure to be one of the most riveting biographies you'll read all year... Though Mary died in 1918, she is vivid and lively in this sympathetic biography that is often screamingly funny. Bolt's characterization of the Benson children, not to mention their father, are spot on.'
--Lee Randall, Scotsman
'Utterly absorbing...devilishly good.' --Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times Alexandra Harris, Guardian
'Sure to be one of the most riveting biographies you'll read all year.' --Lee Randall, Scotsman
'This fascinating book does a brilliant job of revealing just how permissive Victorian society actually was.' --Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times Alexandra Harris, Guardian
`Much of the joy of this effervescent biography is in its detail... At the heart of this book is an extraordinary woman who "evoked rather than dazzled".' --Independent on Sunday Lisa Gee, Independent on Sunday
'A treat.'
--Duncan Fallowell, Daily Express
'Whoever invented the phrase "Victorian values" was presumably not thinking of [the Bensons]... This fascinating book does a brilliant job of revealing just how permissive Victorian society actually was. As Bolt shows, so long as you didn't frighten the horses or alarm the servants, you could get away with pretty much anything.' --Sunday Times
'Despite this extraordinary cast of characters, it is Mary herself who remains centre-stage, her life almost an apotheosis of all that is disturbing in the Victorian period... Bolt's tone is carefully judged throughout, both affectionately admiring of his subject and yet astringently objective. The cleverest woman in Europe and her remarkable brood are fascinating... even as one is grateful never to have met them.'
--Sunday Telegraph
'Much of the joy of this effervescent biography is in its detail... At the heart is an extraordinary woman...who deserves to be written and read about.' --Independent on Sunday
`Mary Benson is lucky to have a champion in Rodney Bolt who rescues her from the sidelines of history with As Good As God, As Clever As the Devil which is sure to be one of the most riveting biographies you'll read all year... Though Mary died in 1918, she is vivid and lively in this sympathetic biography that is often screamingly funny. Bolt's characterization of the Benson children, not to mention their father, are spot on.'
--Lee Randall, Scotsman
'Utterly absorbing...devilishly good.' --Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times Alexandra Harris, Guardian
'Sure to be one of the most riveting biographies you'll read all year.' --Lee Randall, Scotsman
'This fascinating book does a brilliant job of revealing just how permissive Victorian society actually was.' --Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times Alexandra Harris, Guardian
`Much of the joy of this effervescent biography is in its detail... At the heart of this book is an extraordinary woman who "evoked rather than dazzled".' --Independent on Sunday Lisa Gee, Independent on Sunday
'A treat.'
--Duncan Fallowell, Daily Express
'Whoever invented the phrase "Victorian values" was presumably not thinking of [the Bensons]... This fascinating book does a brilliant job of revealing just how permissive Victorian society actually was. As Bolt shows, so long as you didn't frighten the horses or alarm the servants, you could get away with pretty much anything.' --Sunday Times
'Despite this extraordinary cast of characters, it is Mary herself who remains centre-stage, her life almost an apotheosis of all that is disturbing in the Victorian period... Bolt's tone is carefully judged throughout, both affectionately admiring of his subject and yet astringently objective. The cleverest woman in Europe and her remarkable brood are fascinating... even as one is grateful never to have met them.'
--Sunday Telegraph
About the Author
Rodney Bolt was born in South Africa. He studied at Rhodes University and wrote the play Gandhi: Act Too, which won the 1980 Durban Critic's Circle Play of the Year award. That same year he won a scholarship to Cambridge and read English at Corpus Christi. He has twice won twice won Travel Writer of the Year awards in Germany and is the author of History Play, an invented biography of Christopher Marlowe (HarperCollins, 2004) and The Librettist of Venice, a biography of Lorenzo Da Ponte (Bloomsbury, 2006), which was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. He lives in Amsterdam.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The best books take you on an enjoyable journey giving you sights and insights and landing you refreshed and wiser at the end. This chronicle gives sight of religious enthusiasm, Victorian and Edwardian England, same sex friendship, country life in Sussex and leaves you wiser about the wellsprings of creativity. It is the life of Mary Benson (1841-1918), wife then widow of Archbishop Edward Benson, her loves, trials and family.
Religious enthusiasts are notorious for their failure to sympathise. Where sympathetic gifts are allied to a force of conviction though there can be a creative dynamic. This appears to have been the case in the extraordinary marriage of Edward and Mary though the force of conviction was at Edward's end and the pastoral sympathy at Mary's. Headstrong Edward, loving yet exacting, proposes to Mary when she is only twelve. His helpmate eagerly sympathises with him, his family and many others with such humour and wisdom as to make her a great subject for Rodney Bolt's fascinating biography covering her life, loves and faith pilgrimage.
Edward's career, founded in the muscular Christianity of Rugby and Wellington College, takes him to Lincoln Cathedral, then onward to be first Bishop of Truro and, as climax, to be Archbishop of Canterbury. His pioneering at Truro earns recognition for gifts of leadership that he carries with a psychological downside so that, 12 years older though he was than her, it was Mary who was destined to carry him through many a dark mood. Her support came from a series of same sex friendships compensating for the emotional shallowness of their marriage and helping her recover from the eventual loss of both Edward and the high social standing that fell from her at his death.... Read more ›
Religious enthusiasts are notorious for their failure to sympathise. Where sympathetic gifts are allied to a force of conviction though there can be a creative dynamic. This appears to have been the case in the extraordinary marriage of Edward and Mary though the force of conviction was at Edward's end and the pastoral sympathy at Mary's. Headstrong Edward, loving yet exacting, proposes to Mary when she is only twelve. His helpmate eagerly sympathises with him, his family and many others with such humour and wisdom as to make her a great subject for Rodney Bolt's fascinating biography covering her life, loves and faith pilgrimage.
Edward's career, founded in the muscular Christianity of Rugby and Wellington College, takes him to Lincoln Cathedral, then onward to be first Bishop of Truro and, as climax, to be Archbishop of Canterbury. His pioneering at Truro earns recognition for gifts of leadership that he carries with a psychological downside so that, 12 years older though he was than her, it was Mary who was destined to carry him through many a dark mood. Her support came from a series of same sex friendships compensating for the emotional shallowness of their marriage and helping her recover from the eventual loss of both Edward and the high social standing that fell from her at his death.... Read more ›
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By unlikely_heroine
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
I had never heard of Mary Benson before coming across mention on the internet of this biography, but Mrs Benson and her family sounded like extremely interesting characters, so I gave this book a go and am very glad that I did. Rodney Bolt has clearly undertaken extensive research into the Benson family and it shows in a compelling and utterly fascinating portrait of a young woman who becomes a wife and mother and after being widowed, later finds happiness with a female companion.
A good-natured and sensitive child somewhat pressured into a not entirely happy marriage with a distant cousin who later becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, Mary Benson enjoys a series of romantic attachments to individuals other than her husband, most of the objects of her affection being female. This causes some conflict with Mary's Christian faith, which waxes and wanes despite her marriage to such a prominent religious leader. In the meantime, Mary lovingly and thoughtfully brings up her six children with the help of her own old nanny, Beth. I like the way Bolt gives a sense of the Beth character, a servant all her life who dotes on the children of her employers - there must have been hundreds if not thousands of women with similar stories in Victorian England, and amidst all the histories of the rich and famous we get to hear little about them.
The only (minor) criticism I have of this biography is that it does not say enough about the fascinating character of Mary herself. This work is presented as giving an insight into Mary's life following the death of her husband; in fact, for much of the book Edward White Benson remains alive and kicking and we see lots of detail about Mary's marriage to Edward, as well the lives of their offspring.... Read more ›
A good-natured and sensitive child somewhat pressured into a not entirely happy marriage with a distant cousin who later becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, Mary Benson enjoys a series of romantic attachments to individuals other than her husband, most of the objects of her affection being female. This causes some conflict with Mary's Christian faith, which waxes and wanes despite her marriage to such a prominent religious leader. In the meantime, Mary lovingly and thoughtfully brings up her six children with the help of her own old nanny, Beth. I like the way Bolt gives a sense of the Beth character, a servant all her life who dotes on the children of her employers - there must have been hundreds if not thousands of women with similar stories in Victorian England, and amidst all the histories of the rich and famous we get to hear little about them.
The only (minor) criticism I have of this biography is that it does not say enough about the fascinating character of Mary herself. This work is presented as giving an insight into Mary's life following the death of her husband; in fact, for much of the book Edward White Benson remains alive and kicking and we see lots of detail about Mary's marriage to Edward, as well the lives of their offspring.... Read more ›
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By Richard
Format:Hardcover
This is a wonderful book about an extraordinary woman and a clever but dysfunctional family which resonates with much of today's social problems. A splendid evocation of Victorian life and mores that is beautifully written
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Eleanor
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mary Benson was the wife of Edward White Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Her husband and five of her six children (who included the writers E.F. Benson and A.C. Benson) have entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; there, however, Mary remains in the background.
This highly entertaining, fascinating, and very moving biography changes this. We follow Mary from the eleven-year old girl with whom her much older cousin becomes obsessed and is determined to marry, to unhappy wife, to a somewhat liberated widow. Throughout Mary is a lively, sharp, tolerant, and loving figure, who is the centre around which her troubled family (and several charmed men and besotted women) revolved.
By the end of the book I felt that I knew the 'unpermissibly gifted' Benson family intimately, and to say any more would detract from the pleasure to be gained in watching this Victorian life unfold. Passages had me laughing out loud and there are several vividly drawn personalities, including the composer Ethel Smyth, Henry James, and the bonkers Baron Corvo.
Bolt marshalls his material superbly, being aware of the difficulties such a biography presents. He describes how he wanted to organize his work like a commonplace book, resulting in a narrative interspersed with extracts from contemporary novels, (very personal) diaries, letters, and the Bensons' own work. This subtly allows the reader to make connections and draw conclusions as well as helping to evoke the age in which the Bensons lived.
This highly entertaining, fascinating, and very moving biography changes this. We follow Mary from the eleven-year old girl with whom her much older cousin becomes obsessed and is determined to marry, to unhappy wife, to a somewhat liberated widow. Throughout Mary is a lively, sharp, tolerant, and loving figure, who is the centre around which her troubled family (and several charmed men and besotted women) revolved.
By the end of the book I felt that I knew the 'unpermissibly gifted' Benson family intimately, and to say any more would detract from the pleasure to be gained in watching this Victorian life unfold. Passages had me laughing out loud and there are several vividly drawn personalities, including the composer Ethel Smyth, Henry James, and the bonkers Baron Corvo.
Bolt marshalls his material superbly, being aware of the difficulties such a biography presents. He describes how he wanted to organize his work like a commonplace book, resulting in a narrative interspersed with extracts from contemporary novels, (very personal) diaries, letters, and the Bensons' own work. This subtly allows the reader to make connections and draw conclusions as well as helping to evoke the age in which the Bensons lived.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling, fascinating and funny
I bought this on a whim, knowing nothing about the subject matter, and was gripped. A fascinating look at a set of lives. Read more
Published 14 days ago by KA Bodsworth
3.0 out of 5 stars
A forgotten life
Minnie was a child when her cousin decided she would make an ideal wife. Her life was mapped and she became the wife and mother. However Mary Benson had a personality of her own. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Plucked Highbrow
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant!
An absorbing book which is difficult to put down.I loved it and am only sorry that I bought it on my Kindle so cannot pass it around my friends. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Wild woman
5.0 out of 5 stars
All families are psychotic
`All families are psychotic' so runs the title of Douglas Coupland's story of the Drummond family, yet it might so easily have been the title for Bolt's biography/ portrait of Mary... Read more
Published 20 months ago by J Whitgift
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Brilliant Bensons
What a rich subject matter for a biography. In early adolescence, Mary Sidgwick is singled out by her older cousin, Edward Benson, as a suitable marriage partner. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Tamara L
5.0 out of 5 stars
Behind the scenes
This is a brilliant story of what goes on behind the scenes of those in public life - in this case an Archbishop. It is a good read but not salacious and well documented . Read more
Published 23 months ago by Janice
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