Byron 200: Lord Byron & John Murray: A Remarkable Friendship

As part of the Byron 200 events, KSMA commissioned and presented a new play by playwright and director, Angus Graham-Campbell titled ‘Lord Byron & John Murray: A Remarkable Friendship’.

The celebratory evening took place in the historic rooms at John Murray’s publishing house at 50 Albemarle Street in London, the very place where Lord Byron’s papers were destroyed almost 200 years ago to the day. The play was set between 1812 and 1824 and was set in 50 Albemarle Street and the Byronic homes in Italy and Greece.

Lord Byron’s association with his publisher John Murray II began in 1812 with the appearance of the first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Byron’s autobiographical account of his youthful European travels. The poem was a sensational success, giving rise to the poet’s celebrated statement ‘I awoke one morning and found myself famous’. Murray woke to find himself rich and success followed success with poems like The Corsair and The Giaour, allowing Murray to move to this grand house in Albemarle Street, where the room we are in became the hub of literary London. For a while Byron enjoyed huge celebrity and a good many love affairs, most notably with the volcanic Lady Caroline Lamb. Publisher and poet differed politically; Byron was a Whig, while Murray was a Tory, publishing the influential journal The Quarterly Review, edited by the right-wing William Gifford.

Credits:
Commissioned by the Keats Shelley Memorial Association as part of Byron 200
Producer: Joe Bates
Writer and Director: Angus Graham-Campbell
Filming and Editing: Josh Thompson at Wiggly Line Productions

Cast:
Lord Byron: Fred Fergus
John Murray II: Tom Palmer
Mrs Ann Murray / Lady Caroline Lamb / Mariana / Contessa Teresa Guicciolo: Polly Edsell
William Gifford: Peter Caulfield

Thanks to Virginia and John Murray for making the evening possible and for their ongoing support of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.