Book review: Stunner: The Fall And Rise Of Fanny Cornforth
A portrait of Fanny Cornforth, which I saw at The Rossettis exhibition at Tate Britain in 2023. Last year I tried a new thing at the start of the year – I set myself a list of goals. They were relatively easy to achieve, and they were fun . Things like 'go to two exhibitions' and 'go to two gigs'. The aim was to stop myself from getting bogged down in the everyday, and to make sure I was actually doing things instead of wishing I could do things. It worked so well, I decided to set myself a new set of goals this year. One of 2026's is 'read two books on the Preraphaelites or their circle' as I've always found the art beautiful, and the dynamics of the group fascinating. With that in mind, I bought this book for my Kindle. Two women loom large in the life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Elizabeth Siddall and Jane Burden. (I'm using their maiden names, but Siddall married Rossetti and Burden married Rossetti's friend William Morris.) However, if you...
