The writer Aphra Behn is an enigma. She has left behind a body of work and is lauded as a proto-feminist writer but little is known of her early life. Behn appears in London after the Restoration with a confused backstory and a present as a spy in the pay of the government, newly returned from Surinam. She becomes a moderately successful playwright after escaping her debts and also goes on to write what is sometimes considered the first novel in the English language. That novel is based on the scandal of Harriet Berkeley, a wanton teenage member of the nobility who runs away with an older man, her own brother-in-law.
Whilst the majority of the book is concerned with Behn and particularly her early life, it is the story of Harriet that gripped me most. A girl who started her affair at the age of 14 and who remained loyal to her lover even after he was executed for being part of the Monmouth rebellion. Hilton's book is very learned and well-researched, but is also very readable and highlights two women who shocked society.

It's the story of a scandal, of the first novel published in England, and of Aphra Ben. Aphra Ben is a sort of mytical creature as there's a lot of discussions about her life.
The scandal and the events in this book are delightful and a lot of fun as this type of scandal usually are.
Well plotted and good storytelling
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The book is based on evidence and informed speculation about the life and origins of Aphra Behn who is often credited (controversially) with writing a popular epistolary, roman a clef trilogy of books based on a notorious scandal in the 1680's when Lady Harriet Berkeley eloped with her brother in law, Lord Grey and there was a widely reported court case and futher scandal when Lord Grey's wife was revealed to be the lover of The Duke of Monmouth who led the "Pitchfork Rebellion" in 1685 against James II. The first book is sometimes cited as the "first English novel." The book is very well researched. Behn was never credited with writing the books in the 17th or 18th century and any slight evidence she did write them is pretty circumstantial. The great scandal the books were based on should have made for a rip roaring read but I felt the narrative became a bit bogged down in rather too much detail and so it all fell a little flat and rather than flowing the narrative felt disjointed. It was interesting but a bit of a slog in parts.

An account of Aphra Benn's life, which includes all her famous contemporaries, such as Charles Ii, Lord Rochester and of course Nell Gwynn and Barbara Palmer. And Henrietta Berkeley is featured as well, because her elopement with her brother in law was the scandal which inspired Aphra to write 'Love letters'. An amazing amount of historical research went into this book, and Lisa Hilton wrote a previous book on Athenais de Montespan which was also well researched and so, having read the previous book, I knew this one was likely to be good. In fact it was excellent. I can recommend this book highly.

Hilton's idea of exploring together the life of [author:Aphra Behn|28778] and the real-life story that inspired her epistolary novel [book:Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister|51191] grabbed my attention immediately. Behn's life is both intriguing and elusive despite two different established biographies ([book:The Secret Life of Aphra Behn|428989] is the standard academic biography, [book:The Passionate Shepherdess: Aphra Behn, 1640-89 by Maureen Duffy|130572036] is more wayward but still worth a read) and there remain questions even about the most basic information about Behn such as where she was born, who her family were, and did she marry, without even touching on the issue of whether and how she got involved in spying for Charles II's regime during the Dutch Wars.

Hilton's contribution is to suggest that Behn might have been born in Barbados or America - she traces all her thinking but is honest enough to admit there's no definitive proof. With tangible descriptions of London in all its Restoration glory and grubbiness and a brief outline of the politics of the period, this is a kind of snappy life that is very readable. I have to disagree, though, with Hilton's assertion about Behn's work: 'it's awkward that, frankly, seventeenth century drama is a snore'!

Part Two moves on to the Berkeley scandal where Lady Harriet Berkeley eloped with her sister's husband, Lord Grey. The resultant court case was indeed the gossip sensation du jour - but it's hard to untangle it from the 'exclusion' political crisis of the succession as Grey was part of the Monmouth party - and Monmouth was the lover of Grey's own wife, Harriet's sister!

This isn't new information, of course, (the Penguin edition of [book:Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister|51191] gives an outline of the politics that underpins the novel) but Hilton has more time and space to discuss the case, and to imagine Behn translating it into fiction which came out as a kind of real-time version of what was in the broadsheets.

This isn't a scholarly work (though Hilton has read the requisite sources which are in a bibliography but not foot noted) and offers a readable story of an extraordinary woman in Behn and a delicious scandal in the Berkeley episode. With diversions into the Restoration theatre, London hygiene, the seventeenth century slave trade, and walk-on appearances from characters like John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, this manages to be both fun and informative. 3.5 stars rounded up.