Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match - Softcover

Moore, Wendy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753828251 ISBN 13: 9780753828250

Publisher: W&N, 2009

Synopsis

WEDLOCK is the remarkable story of the Countess of Strathmore and her marriage to Andrew Robinson Stoney. Mary Eleanor Bowes was one of Britain's richest young heiresses. She married the Count of Strathmore who died young, and pregnant with her lover's child, Mary became engaged to George Gray. Then in swooped Andrew Robinson Stoney. Mary was bowled over and married him within the week.

But nothing was as it seemed. Stoney was broke, and his pursuit of the wealthy Countess a calculated ploy. Once married to Mary, he embarked on years of ill treatment, seizing her lands, beating her, terrorising servants, introducing prostitutes to the family home, kidnapping his own sister. But finally after many years, a servant helped Mary to escape. She began a high-profile divorce case that was the scandal of the day and was successful. But then Andrew kidnapped her and undertook a week-long rampage of terror and cruelty until the law finally caught up with him.

About this title

About the Author:

Wendy Moore is a freelance journalist and author. Her work had been published in numerous national newspapers and magazines and has won several awards Her first book KNIFE MAN: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUNTER, FATHER OF MODERN SURGERY, won the Medical Journalists' Association Consumer Book Award in 2005 and was shortlisted for both Saltire and the Marsh Biography Awards. Her Second book. WEDLOCK: HOW GEORGIAN BRITAIN'S WORST HUSBAND MET HIS MATCH, has been highly acclaimed in reviews and was chosen as one of the ten titles in the Channel 4 TV Book Club. She lives in London with her husband Pete and two children, Sam and Susie.Visit Wendy Moore's website at http://wendymoore.org and follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/wendymoore99.

Review:

Moore paints a fresh, vivid picture of the age * GOOD BOOK GUIDE * rip-roaring * SUNDAY EVENING POST * This lurid tale of high-society sadism grips from the first page. * INDEPENDENT * gripping and meticulous * DAILY TELEGRAPH * Beginning with a bloody duel and the deathbed marriage of one of the combatants, this torrent of a biography sweeps the reader along... Mary's prolonged, audacious struggle to extricate herself from this marriage is a natch for Hollywood. * INDEPENDENT * 'Wendy Moore tells her tale with gusto' * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH * 'Moore fashions a gripping narrative' * SUNDAY TIMES * Moore, mistress of suspense, writes in the gripping language of a thriller...This book has it all - the blackest of villains, the strongest friendship, kidnap, abortions, riches and all completely true. * OBSERVER * Biography needs more Wendy Moores * NEW YORK TIMES * Gallops headlong towards an unbelievably tense denouement which any work of Hollywood fiction would struggle to match * SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY * Moore has meticulously constructed an ever more compelling tale * GUARDIAN * Mary's escape, her abduction by Stoney and dramatic rescue are grippingly told * INDEPENDENT * Mesmerising . . . entertainingly digressive and rigorously researched * FINANCIAL TIMES * How Mary, with the help of a loyal servant, struggled to escape Stoney's clutches is the breathless and inspirational climax of this fine book * TIMES * The remarkable story of one woman's triumph over years of appalling violence and abuse * DAILY EXPRESS * Wedlock is the best biography that I have read in a long time. It's gripping, addictive and painstakingly researched * MAIL ON SUNDAY * This splendid book, well researched and richly detailed, is as gripping as any novel * DAILY TELEGRAPH *

About this edition

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0753828251
• ISBN 13: 9780753828250
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512