Elizabeth Butler – författare

The young Elizabeth Butler (née Thompson, 1846-1933) and her sister, the poet Alice Meynell, were educated at home by their wealthy father, and much of their childhood was spent in Italy. Elizabeth began to train as an artist at the Female School of Art, South Kensington, in 1866. She became famous for her work in the genre (unusual for a woman) of military art, one of her best known paintings being The Roll Call, an imagined incident from the Crimea. She took great trouble to ensure the accuracy of the detail of regimental uniform, and her depiction of the bravery and stoicism of the 'ordinary British soldier' was much appreciated in the late nineteenth century. This brisk and amusing 1922 autobiography, illustrated with her own sketches, takes the reader from her childhood through her artistic success to her life as the wife of a soldier and the mother of five children.

Elizabeth Butler (née Thompson, 1846-1933) and her sister, the poet Alice Meynell, were educated at home by their wealthy father, and much of their childhood was spent in Italy. Elizabeth began to train as an artist at the Female School of Art, South Kensington, in 1866, and became famous for her work in the genre (unusual for a woman) of military art. In this illustrated work of 1909, dedicated to her sister, she recalls time spent in Ireland, Egypt, and the Cape of Good Hope. On some of these travels she was accompanying her soldier husband, while others were taken for pleasure. Her final reminiscences are of Italy, from both her childhood and her later artistic career. Her diary, and letters to her mother, provide much of the text, but the colour illustrations (which can be viewed at www.cambridge.org/9781108081306, under 'Resources') are an equally important feature of the book.

This volume is the first to bring together the entire extant correspondence of one of the most significant women in early modern Ireland, Elizabeth Butler, first Duchess of Ormonde. She was the wife of James Butler, twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormonde, who, as Ireland’s only duke and three times its lord lieutenant, was a figure of considerable importance in seventeenth-century Ireland. But far from being overshadowed by her powerful husband, Butler was a person of significant power and influence in her own right. Descended from the tenth Earl of Ormonde, she brought a hefty portion of the Ormonde estate to the marriage. As Countess, Marchioness, then Duchess of Ormonde, as well as three times vicereine and a high-status courtier, she sat at the pinnacle of Irish and English society, unmatched by any other Irish woman of the period in terms of her wealth, social standing, and power. Her surviving correspondence reveals her importance within the Ormonde-Butler family and in the social, cultural, and political life of seventeenth-century Ireland.The volume comprises more than three hundred letters written by Ormonde to her husband and family, agents and servants, and friends and clients. Spanning six decades, these letters are meticulously transcribed, edited, and annotated, and the volume includes a substantial scholarly introduction, family trees, a glossary, and other resources.

Eva’s life changes after she is informed by the police that David, her councillor friend, has been involved in a car accident. A post-mortem discovers he had been given a lethal drug and was already dead when the car hit him. The police tell Eva that she too had been given the same drug but in a much smaller dose. Was she the intended victim? A battle for land between wealthy Russian investors and Eva’s lover sets the backdrop of the story. Before his death, councillor David was due to head the committee to decide which land application should be rubber-stamped. A photograph showing Eva lying on the park bench is sent to her at the court house. Detective Inspector Peter Marsh is investigating the death and wonders if this is a blackmail threat. Deception, lies and a struggle for power all add to Eva’s nightmare as she struggles to come to terms with her friend’s death. A Moment Lost is an intricate mystery story woven with deceit, lies and greed. This book will appeal to readers of crime and mystery fiction.