Effie Gray

Not a very exciting photo but I was inspired by watching the film 'Effie Gray,' shown on BBC 2 on Saturday night. Effie was born in Perth and married at a young age to the writer John Ruskin. Unfortunately this didn't go very well and when she presented herself to him on their wedding night he was disgusted by her body and refused to consummate the marriage. The poor woman was stuck with him for years before she fell in love with the painter Millais who had been commissioned to paint her husband. Eventually she managed to get her marriage to Ruskin annulled on the grounds of his 'impotency', married Millais and lived a happy life. This is her gravestone, in Kinnoull churchyard, along with one of her children.