The Remarkable Miss Digby

In 1853, only a lunatic would consider crossing the Syrian desert to see the Roman ruins at Palmyra. Most travellers from Europe rash enough to venture into the desert are never seen again, and a woman considering such a journey, without her husband, is preposterous. When Jane Digby, the Lady Ellenborough, granddaughter of the Earl of Leicester, informs the British Consul in Damascus that this is what she intends to do, he quickly learns she’s a woman who brooks no argument. In Syria, Jane hopes at last to settle, only to discover a world of recklessness and integrity, of cruelty and desire, where her own passion is stirred more than she ever dared hope for. The Remarkable Miss Digby is a hauntingly beautiful story of a woman determined to escape the confines of her class and gender, living during a time of religious and cultural upheaval which uncannily mirrors our own. Jane Digby’s scandalous life has been well chronicled. She spent her last decades in Syria and in this enthralling book, author Patricia Donovan, drawing on her own experience in the Syrian desert, imagines Jane’s life in that wild land.