Zoffany’s daughter; a biographical fragment

My subject is a microhistory – that is, a small story with potentially large meanings. In mid-1825 Cecilia Zoffany, daughter of the illustrious painter Johann Zoffany, a woman of ‘rank and fashion’ and reputed to be a great beauty, arrived with two of her children on the island of Guernsey. For the previous three years she had been estranged and living apart from her husband, the Reverend Thomas Horne, who had provided her and the children with sufficient to live on. Now Reverend Horne was determined to have his children back. His wife was equally determined to keep them. The ensuing battle packed the island’s courthouse and enthralled the local community, until it reached its inevitable climax – and unexpected denouements. Some years ago, when I spoke on this subject in the History Seminar in RSSS, I wasn’t sure how to handle it. An academic paper would not do it justice. A film (preferably with Cate Blanchett in the title role) was easy to imagine – but unhappily I live in the real world. Eventually I settled on a little book, now nearly completed. A book is conventional; but I hope my presentation of the story isn’t. Microhistory lends itself to genre-bending: and here I experiment with voice, structure, tensions between history and fiction, and devices to leave the reader wondering what happens next. I will reflect in the workshop on each of these issues.