Isabella Beeton
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Isabella Mary Beeton (née Mayson) (12 March 1836 – 6 February 1865), universally known as Mrs Beeton, was the English author of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, and is one of the most famous cookery writers.
The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton
In 2006, BBC television broadcast a biographical drama, The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton, with Anna Madeley in the title role. This tended to emphasise Mrs Beeton's feminist credentials, as well as playing on the assumption that many viewers would have been unaware of her relative youth when she wrote her books and her early death.
The TV drama implied (as put forth in Kathryn Hughes' biography) that Isabella Beeton suffered from syphilis contracted from her husband, and that this may possibly have led to her death and those of her two children, although there is no firm evidence for this speculation. The show was directed by Jon Jones.