The Billionaire Princess

This wonderful poem was written by Luke Wright and read out on the Saturday Live show I appeared on last weekend. It was based on the life story of Consuela Vanderbilt, one of the inspirations for my book My Last Duchess, and I think it’s a very interesting take on the nineteenth century marriage market.

The Billionaire Princess

Her mother made her wear a rod of steel
all up her spine, like one of Daddy’s rails.
A one track life, an extra in a deal
in which an ancient magic was for sale.
A straight forward transaction, each man won –
Americans got to join the sacred club,
the English got their fortunes back, a son
if they were lucky, no one spoke of love.
And so at eighteen she married for a title
she bore the duke an heir and gazed at ponds,
each stifled day a series of recitals,
of age-old protocol and gilded bonds.
While money spun the wheel of power’s mill
that girl was in the background rigid, still.

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