A few years ago, I visited Bamburgh*, Northumberland, home of the RNLI Grace Darling Museum. It's a small museum with an inspirational story to tell - that of a young lighthouse keeper's daughter who took part in the perilous rescue of nine wrecked passengers during a horrific storm in 1838. Her bravery captured the Victorian imagination, and Darling became an unwilling celebrity. One of the most interesting things I learned during the visit was that, when she died just four years later, donations flooded in from an adoring public for a magnificent Gothic memorial featuring her stone likeness. Not only is the ostentatious tomb at odds with both Darling's modesty and the charming coastal setting, it is also empty. Tellingly, she was actually buried alongside her beloved family elsewhere in the churchyard rather than beneath the heroic image her fans thrust upon her. Stories like Darling's and the strange interaction between public image and personal life are just one of the many contradictory features explored in Greg Jenner's new book, 'Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen'.
