Byron Studies
Geoffrey Bond is a renowned Byron expert having been interested in Byron for most of his adult life. For over 30 years, Bond has also had the rare privilege of living in a Byron house – Burgage Manor in Southwell, Nottinghamshire – where Byron lived from 1803-08 and where he wrote his first four collections of poetry. Bond has hosted many Byron events at his home at Burgage Manor, receiving visitors from all over the world.
A passionate collector of Byron books and memorabilia, Bond has made many valuable contributions to Byron studies. He has published three critically-acclaimed books on Byron, written various Byron pamphlets and numerous articles for the international Byron Journal, and been Chairman of the Byron Society in London from 1996 to 2003. For some years, he was also on the Board of the American Byron Society which met at the University of Delaware. Bond was the Founder Trustee of the Elma Dangerfield Trust, turning a £500,000 legacy into a £1 million fund, which now helps to finance the London Byron Society. The current Lord (Robin) Byron is also a trustee.
From his extensive private Byron collection, Bond has donated Byron objects, as well as many books and prints, to the Byron Museum in Messolonghi, Greece. He has also travelled to Ravenna in Italy to advise on the setting up of a Byron museum in the Palazzo Guiccioli and he has donated 130 Byron books and several Byron objects from his private collection to this new museum. Closer to home, Bond has paid for the restoration of the original Ridge Brothers printing press which published Byron’s first four collections of poems in nearby Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire.
Together with the current Lord Byron and the Byron Society in the UK, Bond has successfully campaigned to raise funds to move the Byron Memorial Statue from Park Lane in London back into Hyde Park. With generous support from the National Heritage Lottery Fund and the Heritage of London Trust, together with many private donors and supporters across the world, this statue will now be restored and relocated within the park’s boundaries and will form part of a broader educational programme. Made in bronze by the sculptor Richard Claude Belt and erected in 1880, this is the only public statue to Lord Byron in England.
Books about
Lord Byron
Geoffrey Bond has written three critically-acclaimed books about Lord Byron.
Byron’s Manor: Birthplace of his poetry (2024) – written to mark the bicentenary of Byron’s death. Byron’s Manor explores Byron’s early poetry and letters and reveals that the birthplace of Byron’s published poetry is Burgage Manor in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, where Byron lived as a teenager.
Dangerous to Show: Byron and His Portraits (2020) – co-authored with the Byron scholar Dr Christine Kenyon-Jones. This book examines the many portraits of Lord Byron and is the only known book on the subject. It was awarded the 2021 Prize for the best book on Byron by an International Literary Committee.
Lord Byron’s Best Friends (2013) – sheds light on the poet’s canine love affairs from bulldogs to Boatswain and beyond… there are Newfoundlands, Mastiffs, Terriers, Greyhounds, and even a Poodle! This book also features a colourful condensed biography of the poet.
To purchase any of these books by Geoffrey Bond, please go to the Shop page.
Byron Publications
Byron: The Image of the Poet Bond wrote a chapter entitled ‘Byron Memorabilia’ for this important volume about the poet Lord Byron; other contributors include Germaine Greer, Dr Annette Peach, Dr Peter Cochran, Dr Bernard Beatty and Dr Christine Kenyon-Jones who also edited the book.
‘Byron at Burgage Manor: 1803-1808’ is a joint publication with Stanley Chapman about Byron’s time spent living at Burgage Manor together with a section entitled ‘New perspectives on Georgian Southwell’. This was first published in The Transactions – the Journal of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire.
The Byron Journal Bond has also written for the Byron Journal on various topics, including the subject of collecting Byron books. The Byron Journal is an international publication published twice a year by Liverpool University Press on behalf of The Byron Society, London.
Lord Byron Parisina et Darkness by Daniele Sarrat. In 2012 Bond was the publisher for a unique bilingual edition of two famous poems by Lord Byron – ‘Parisina’ and ‘Darkness’ – translated from English into French by the well- known, brilliant French scholar, Daniele Sarrat, for which she received high academic acclaim.