Lord Byron in popular culture from characterisations of Byron. The image of a vampire portrayed as an aristocrat was created by John William Polidori in "The Vampyre", during the summer of 1816 which he spent in the company of Byron. The titled Count Dracula is a reprise of this character. Tom Holland, in his 1995 novel "The Vampyre: Being the True Pilgrimage of George Gordon, Sixth Lord Byron", romantically describes how Lord Byron became a vampire during his first visit to Greece — a fictional transformation that explains much of his subsequent behaviour towards family and friends, and finds support in quotes from Byron poems
Lord Byron allowed to leave his exile in the Romagna under the condition that his daughter return to him, without Byron. At the same time that the philhellene Edward Blaquiere was attempting to recruit him, Byron was confused as to what he was supposed to do in Greece, writing: "Blaquiere seemed to think that I might be of some use-even "here";-though "what" he did not exactly specify". With the assistance of his banker and Captain Daniel Roberts, Byron chartered the brig "Hercules" to take him to Greece. When Byron left Genoa, it caused "passionate grief" from Guiccioli, who wept openly as he