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Susannah Harker reads from the story of how, within three generations, the illustrious family of poet Lord Byron disintegrated into adultery, debt, elopement, coercion and murder.

In 1798 a small, bewildered boy of ten from Aberdeen – whom the world would later come to know as Lord Byron, the Romantic poet, soldier, and adventurer – first laid eyes on Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire, the Byron family seat he had just inherited. His family, he would come to learn, had in recent decades become infamous for almost unfathomable levels of scandal and impropriety, from elopement, murder, and kidnapping to adultery, coercion, and thrilling near-death experiences at sea. Just as it had shocked the society of Georgian London, the outlandish and scandalous story of the Byrons – and the myths that began to rise around it – would influence his life and poetry for posterity.

In this fourth episode, we hear of the adventurous life of the poet’s grandfather Admiral John Byron who survived shipwreck, fever, scurvy and military disaster to become one of the 18th century’s most celebrated naval officers.

Despite the weakness for the opposite sex which seemed to run in the Byron blood, John was by far the most illustrious of his generation and his name lives on around the world to this day - a testament to his voyages of discovery and military exploits.

Captain Cook paid tribute to his predecessor by naming Australia’s easternmost point Cape Byron, known now as Byron Bay. There is Byron Island, off the Chilean coast, Byron Bay in Newfoundland, Byron Heights in the Falkland Islands, and the former Byron’s Island in what is now the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific.

Written by Emily Brand
Abridged and produced by Jane Greenwood
Read by Susannah Harker
A Loftus Media production for ±«Óãtv Radio 4