Love and Dirt: The Marriage of Arthur Munby and Hannah Cullwick

by Diane Atkinson (Author)

• Used

  Unabridged
  2004

  $13.49

  Arthur Munby, barrister and published poet, met Hannah Cullwick, Shropshire scullery maid, on London's Oxford Street in 1854. They had in common a sexual obsession: Munby adored watching Hannah 'in her dirt' and she responded to him with a literally slavish devotion. Amply documented in their letters and diaries, this is the compelling tale of a clandestine relationship that was to last for over fifty years.

  'Shadowy figures at the edge of Victorian life, they might almost have stepped out of a Dickens plot' Claire Tomalin, Evening Standard

  'Arthur and Hannah have been lucky with their biographer...Diane Atkinson has a generous appreciation of all the nuances and paradoxes of their bizarre relationship' Mail on Sunday

  'In the letters and diaries of Hannah Cullwick and Arthur Munby, Diane Atkinson has discovered a gem of a story...Love & Dirt successfully presents an important historical document in a highly readable, accessible form...a fascinating insight into aspects of Victorian sexuality' Sunday Independent