Anne Falloon is a lifelong Byron enthusiast and an alumna of University College London and the University of Leeds, where she earned a degree in English language and literature. Her dedication to the Romantic poet began early: in her twenties, she appeared on BBC’s Mastermind with the life of Lord Byron as her specialist subject.

Following a teaching and management career in Further Education, Anne retired to a Pennine village located close to the Byron family’s former Lancashire estates. In 2012, she co-founded the Middleton Archaeological Society near Rochdale, establishing a platform for regional historical and archaeological inquiry. As a member of the London-based Byron Society, Anne researched and wrote ‘Byron’s Week in Middleton’, an account of the poet’s 1811 visit to Hopwood Hall near Rochdale—his only visit to Lancashire—which was published in the Byron Journal (Vol. 41, No. 1, 2013). The journal went on to publish three further essays by her, the most recent in 2024. In addition to her Byron studies, Anne has conducted extensive research for the Middleton Archaeological Society on topics ranging from ‘The Lost Ladies of Middleton’ (exploring female gentry in mediaeval and Tudor Middleton) to Abdias Assheton, pastor to the Earl of Essex, and his role in the demise of Elizabeth I’s favourite. Her lecture for the Society draws upon her ongoing research into the Byron family of Lancashire and the poet’s 1811 visit.

Now living in Denbighshire, Anne remains an active member of local history and archaeology groups, currently assisting with research into nearby historic houses. Having lectured locally, she continues to give talks across England on Lord Byron. While Byron himself never visited North Wales, his close friend Shelley did; Anne’s talk, ‘Celebrity Georgians come to Wales’, explores what prominent figures of the era—including Shelley and Dr Johnson—thought of the country during their visits in the reign of George III.