We’re open every day except Good Friday, 29 March. View our Easter opening hours here ›
The Ambitions of Jane Franklin by Alison Alexander
In a period when most ladies sat at home with their embroidery, Jane Franklin achieved fame throughout the western world, and was probably the best travelled woman of her day.
A genius at publicity before the term existed, Jane Franklin was a celebrity in the mid-19th century. This is her remarkable life, including her extensive travels, her years in Tasmania as the governor's wife, and her very public battle to save her husband, the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, from accusations of cannibalism.
Alison Alexander traces the life of this inimitable woman, from her birth in late eighteenth-century London, her marriage at the ripe age of 36 years to Sir John Franklin, to her many trips to far-flung locations, including Russia, the Holy Land, northern Africa, America and Australia.