Amy Fletcher: The Irrepressible Mary Jeune

Who was Mary Jeune – and why has almost everyone forgotten her?

A journalist, social reformer and society hostess, Mary Jeune was once so famous that the press followed her every move on both sides of the Atlantic. Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy and Winston Churchill sought her advice – as did people on the margins of society. She had strong opinions and was never afraid to express them, moving effortlessly between privilege and poverty, sometimes with hilarious consequences.

Yet she vanished from history. With no personal papers to guide her, it took a determined great-granddaughter  to uncover her extraordinary story.

Mary Jeune’s world encompassed the Irish Question, American civil rights, the Sudan, slum clearance, the New Woman, Lady Bracknell, mad aristocrats and the arrival of the motor car. 

Come and meet the woman who refused to fit into any box.