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Deep in the archives of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford lies a tattered scrap of paper with newlyweds scribbles on it. It is a table listing the qualities of a couple. One column reads Often says what he does not think, He does not show his feelings, He is a Genius and the other Never says anything she does not think, She shows her feelings, She is a Dunce. The writing is Mary Anne Disraelis, contrasting her own qualities with those of her husband, Benjamin Disraeli, one of the foremost politicians of the Victorian age. From the outset they made an unlikely couple. Mary Anne was the daughter of a sailor, twelve years Disraelis senior, and married to someone else when they met. She was also highly eccentric, liable to misbehave, and worse still embarrassingly overdressed for grand society dinners.