Ellen Terry is perhaps the most celebrated English actress of the 19th century, and the best known member of the talented theatrical Terry family, today represented by her great-nephew Sir John Gielgud. On the stage from the age of eight, Ellen was a rebellious young women, passing through much emotional turmoil - inculding a failed marriage to the artist G F Watts, and a longer relationship with the architect Edward Godwin - before joining Henry Irving's Lyceum company in 1878. During her long association with Irving she played many Shakespearean heroines, notably Portia and Beatrice, and became a revered Victorian icon in spite of having two illegitimate children. The biography gives a concise account of Terry's life and examines her reputation as the greatest English actress of the Victorian stage.
