Dr. Kate Lister
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
So when Byron is born, he's not around.
She gives birth, not completely on her own because there's a midwife there and a doctor, but it's above a shop in London.
He's not there for that.
He does, actually.
He's that kind of aristocratic poverty.
They've got the name.
They've got the title that they can sort of trade on to get money and creditors, but they are skinty poor.
They really are.
They're living above shops.
They are relying on handouts from family members.
She is very much a single mother.
They are on their uppers.
It's not a good time, the early childhood.
And he's in Aberdeen.
They moved from London to Aberdeen.
So it's possible that adult Byron would have had a slight Scottish lilt when he spoke to you.
Certainly there's some early poems that we have when he was about 10 or 11, and he writes in a Scottish dialect.
He talks about, come see Tway laddies with Tway club foot as they walk up Broad Street.
So he might have had a slight Scottish lilt.