When the author bought a falling down fortified house on the
Staffordshire moorlands, he had no reason to anticipate the astonishing
tale that would unfold as it was restored. A mysterious set of
relationships emerged amongst its former owners, revolving round the
almost forgotten artist, Robert Bateman, a prominent Pre-Raphaelite and
friend of Burne Jones. He was to marry the granddaughter of the Earl of
Carlisle, and to be associated with Benjamin Disraeli, William
Gladstone, and other prominent political and artistic figures.
But he had abandoned his life as an artist in mid-career to live as a
recluse, and his rich and glamorous wife-to-be had married the local
vicar, already in his sixties and shortly to die. The discovery of two
clearly autobiographical paintings led to an utterly absorbing forensic
investigation into Bateman's life.
The story moves from Staffordshire to Lahore, to Canada, Wyoming, and
then, via Buffalo Bill, to Peru and back to England. It leads to the
improbable respectability of Imperial Tobacco in Bristol, and then, less
respectably, to a car park in Stoke-on-Trent. En route the author pieces
together an astonishing and deeply moving story of love and loss, of art
and politics, of morality and hypocrisy, of family secrets concealed but
never quite completely obscured. The result is a page-turning
combination of detective story and tale of human frailty, endeavor, and
love. It is also a portrait of a significant artist, a reassessment of
whose work is long overdue.
Nigel Daly is an antique dealer and house restorer.
