News and Events
January 2009
My second book, 'Wedlock', will be published on 15 January 2009 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in the UK. The US edition will be published in March.
'Wedlock' tells the remarkable true story of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore, who became Britain's richest heiress on the death of her entrepreneur father when she was 11. After an unhappy first marriage to John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore, who left her a widow when he died of TB, she was lured into marrying an Irish fortune-hunter named Andrew Robinson Stoney. Squandering her money and laying waste her vast estate, Stoney - who adopted the surname Bowes on marriage - reduced Mary to a wretched, starved, petrified shadow of her former self. After suffering eight years of cruelty and torment, Mary Eleanor finally found help in the most unlikely of places. A barely credible tale of survival and triumph against overwhelming odds, 'Wedlock' reveals an eighteenth-century world of sexual intrigue, terrifying adventure and court room drama.
'A gripping story, brilliantly told' ... Amanda Foreman, author of 'The Duchess'.
November 2008
Croydon Medical Society
I will be giving a talk to the Croydon Medical Society on 20 November 2008.
September 2008
University of North Carolina
I was privileged in giving lectures to the Bullitt History of Medicine Club on 23 September and to the surgeons' Grand Rounds on 24 September. My thanks to Dr Liz Dreesen and everyone else who helped make my visit memorable.
Congress of Neurological Surgeons
I was delighted to give the Third Annual John Thompson History of Medicine Lecture to the Annual Meeting of the Congress of Neurological Surgeoons in Orlando, Florida, on 25 September 2008.
October 2007
Marsh Biography Award
The Knife Man was shortlisted for the 2007 Marsh Biography Award. The award is presented biennially for a work that is historically important, records significant human achievement and is representative of the highest standards of written English and serious research.