Fiona Sampson on In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein

We were joined by Fiona Sampson to discuss her new book In Search for Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein - an insightful biography of one of the world’s most influential and innovative writers.

[@booksbyleynes]

It was an absolute delight to attend this reading (and it's a little bizarre to see myself in the first row in this video :D), Fiona Sampson is such an intelligent and charming woman, I loved hearing her words and witnessing her passion. I am so glad I picked up her biography at your store. Thank you so much for organising these events! :)

[@oscarmurillo850]

Me entuciasma conocer a esta grandiosa escritora, traductora, que nos ilustra con este magnífico libro - en busca de mary shelley, uno de los mejores libros que he tenido el honor de leer.

[@purpledanny1958]

Humble as she is, Fiona doesn't come across as very confident and affirmative about what she's saying, surprisingly evasive(so many 'may's) and unperceptive about Mary's psyche which I think is more important than the social circumstances. As an editor of Percy Shelley's poems(Faber's poet-to-poet series), she puzzled me by saying she has read less of Percy's life than of Mary's life.

[@johngray9434]

Sorry but there’s no evidence of personal safety having been a cause by which the Shelley’s fled to Italy. Lots of evidence to substantiate they chose to live abroad to escape the scandal they brought upon themselves but no evidence of any security problems which would have caused them to leave England.