Frankenstein and his monster are household names - even if one is often confused for the other. But what of their creator?

In this episode we are meeting Mary Shelley. Did she really lose her virginity on her mother's grave? Did she keep her husband's heart after his death? And where did the gothic novel 'Frankenstein' come from?

Kate is joined by poet Fiona Sampson to explore Mary and her life. Fiona's biography of Mary Shelley is entitled ‘In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein’.

This episode was edited by Tim Arstall and produced by Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E19 Chris Chasteen: ContentCucumber.com's Outsourcing Your Content...Here's How