'Our Ancestor'

23-Feb-11 - This is a silly story, but it amuses me to think what might have been, probably in a fantasy world. While we were at the Grande Champagne Cognac tasting at the Hellenic centre James pointed out 'our ancestor' - a marble bust of Lord Byron who is, of course, a national hero in Greece.

The story is this: we Radfords are a large tribe, and my branch of the family comes from Nottingham/south Derbyshire (specifically around the Alfreton area) and, while I was working for a publisher in the East Midlands in the 1980s, over a period of time I wrote tourist guides for the five counties. Of particular interest for me was Nottinghamshire, of course, which was the home of Lord Byron. He inherited the title, as well as Newstead Abbey, quite unexpectedly, but only lived at the Abbey sporadically. While he was there, he had a housekeeper called Annie Radford and, although unmarried, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son  whom she named John Radford. She never revealed the name of the father, but Lord Byron's reputation for sexual profligacy led many people to believe that... Well, you get the picture.

Of course the father could have been the gardener or the butler or the under-footman, but I prefer to believe that, had things been different, I might be the current Lord Byron. I have published poetry, after all.

The real Lord Byron is a barrister in London. I have never met him but I wonder if there might be some form of family resemblance. Probably not.