Mary Shelley (12A)
Directed by Haifaa al-Mansour

TWO centuries after Mary Shelley wrote her classic work Frankenstein, regarded as one of the first works of science fiction, there have been umpteen film and stage versions of her complex and unconventional novel and this latest is a deliciously gothic romantic drama.

Shelley, played by Elle Fanning, was a feminist trailblazer who at the age of 16 ran away with the married radical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth), taking her stepsister Claire Clairmont (Bel Powley) with her and with whom he later became involved.

She started writing Frankenstein when she was just 18 years old during a stay at the mansion of Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge) in Geneva when he challenged his guests to a ghost-story writing competition. But she was forced to publish her work anonymously at first, due to the conventions of the time.