The Girl in Rose: Haydn's Last Love - Softcover

Independent–minded and irrepressible, Rebecca Schroeter was one of Georgian England’s “young ladies of fashion.” Stuck in the family home, her prospects looked uninspiring, until she fell in love with her music master and eloped with him to London. From the moment she arrived in the capital, she reveled in its musical and social life. A talented musician herself, she met London’s leading lights. In her forties, this idyllic life was cut short by her husband’s death; but Haydn, the most famous composer in Europe, commanded the attention of the “beautiful English widow,” who was to become his “dearest love.” Drawing on their passionate letters, Peter Hobday skillfully reconstructs their relationship and the world they moved in, balancing an intimate account of a captivating woman with a lively portrait of an age.

Peter Hobday was for many years a presenter of the TODAY programme on Radio 4, and the presenter of Radio 3's MASTERWORKS series about the life and work of the great composers. He now divides his time between the family home in London and a house in Italy which he has restored, where he grows olives, and does most of his writing.