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William John Bankes: The Exiled Collector

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Date and time
Thursday, October 6, 2005

Anne Sebba discusses her new book about William John Bankes, The Exiled Collector. William John Bankes was a former Tory MP, pioneer Egyptologist, renowned traveler, and consummate collector. A prominent figure in early Victorian Britain and friend to both Byron and the Duke of Wellington, Bankes was forced to flee Britain in 1841 and settled in Venice. He lost his possessions and property to the authorities, but unable to let his standing as an outlaw interfere with his affection for his prior estate, Bankes continued to decorate his beloved home and assemble his extraordinary collection. He collected obsessively for the house that he no longer owned, sending art, sculpture by Carlo Marochetti, huge quantities of marble, gilding, leatherwork, and Pietra Dura to the estate, which he visited in secret near the end of his life. Ms. Sebba recants the dramatic events in William Bankes' life, using previously unpublished archives, and examining the psychology of collecting as well as the pain and creativity of exile.

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Anne Sebba is a biographer, lecturer, journalist and former Reuters foreign correspondent. Her first job was at the BBC World Services in the Arabic Department. She has written eight books, several short stories and introductions to reprinted novels. She is a member of the Society of Authors Executive Committee and is working on a biography of Wallis Simpson. In September 2007 she launched her major new biography - *Jennie Churchill: Winston's American Mother* published by John Murray in the UK to widespread acclaim. In November W.W. Norton published it in the US as *American Jennie: the Remarkable Life of Winston Churchill's Mother*. In 2008 Anne was consultant for the Channel 4 film, *Lady Randy: Churchill's Mother*, broadcast to coincide with the launch of the paperback. Anne started her working life as a foreign correspondent for Reuters, partly in Rome, and in 1993 wrote a history of women reporters called *Battling for News: The Rise of the Woman Reporter* and is regularly invited to lecture on the subject in university media departments. In 1990 *Laura Ashley: A Life By Design* was published in UK and US and also reached several bestseller lists. This was a biography of a businesswoman, wife, mother and proto-feminist who became one of the leading influences on British twentieth century design and marketing.
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