Wendy Moore - Author and freelance writer
Reviews of Wedlock
Paperback reviews
'Wedlock is meticulously researched and Moore, mistress of suspense, writes in the gripping language of a thriller so the pages flash past. This book has it all - the blackest of villains, the strongest of friendship, kidnap, abortions, riches and all completely true. Ripe for film adaptation.' Katie Toms, Observer
'Wendy Moore tells her tale with gusto and draws many aspects of the period into focus, not least the role of satirical cartoonists and the popular press.' Katie Owen, Sunday Telegraph
'...a gripping narrative...' Sarah Bakewell, Sunday Times
Hardback reviews
‘Wedlock is the best biography I have read in a long time. It’s gripping, addictive and painstakingly researched. The book works on many levels – it’s not just a tale of evil but also one of humanity and loyalty’ Andrea Wulf, Mail on Sunday *****
'Wendy Moore opens this spectacular book with a spectacular scene: a duel inside the Adelphi Taven in London in January 1777 ... Moore, an experienced British journalist, writes lively and literate prose. She has done a heroic amount of research, bringing her characters to life with singular verisimilitude and portraying 18th-century courtship and marriage in full detail ... 'Wedlock' is serious, perceptive, thoughtful and - by no means least - compulsively readable.' Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Read the review
'... a contemporary paced tale of wealth, status and privilege, laced with lust, greed, pride and more than a smattering of gratuitous violence. ... From surviving accounts by the Countess, together with contemporary records, Moore unravels in meticulous detail the story of how one man beat, abused and finally cowed one of the most famous aristocrats of the day. It is an extraordinary story of class, culture, sexism and prejudice; but on a personal level is a very human tale, one of physical and psychological abuse that is sadly not unfamiliar today. How Mary, with the help of Mary Morgan, a loyal servant, struggled to escape Stoney's clutches is the breathless and inspirational climax of this fine book.' Sarah Vine, The Times Read the review
'In this book about "how Georgian Britain's worst husband met his match", Wendy Moore whips along a story crammed with corrupt surgeons, questionable chaplains, fallen women and gossips ... Moore helpfully contextualises everything, from duelling etiquette to procuring abortions and the changing nature of marriage.' Marianne Brace, The Independent Read the review
'Mary grew up an anomaly: a highly intelligent woman with a special interest in literature and botany. Sadly, her intelligence did not extend to her judgement of men. Wendy Moore's fascinating biography charts the consequences of her misguided choices. ...This splendid book, well researched and richly detailed, is as gripping as a novel.' Michael Arditti, Daily Telegraph Read the review
‘mesmerising’ ... ‘Wendy Moore, whose previous book The Knife Man dealt with the grisly medical experiments of the contemporaneous surgeon John Hunter, seems to have cornered a niche in the Georgian macabre. Wedlock often reads like a cross between Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and the Gothic horrors so popular at the time.’ … ‘entertainingly digressive and rigorously researched’. George Pendle, Financial Times Read the review
‘An anatomy of an 18th-century upper-crust marriage…Wedlock is set in immaculate historical context, allowing new insights…Recovering from the archives every complexity of her subjects’ lives and legal embroilments, Moore has meticulously constructed an ever more compelling tale’... Lydia Syson, The Guardian
'... a gripping narrative' ... Sunday Times Read the review
'... brilliantly researched reconstruction of the tortuous progress of the Bowes divorce ...' Claire Harman, Sunday Telegraph
'...fast-paced, horrifying' ... Maggie Scarf, New York Times Review of Books Read the review
'With thorough research, quick wits and a skilful pen, Wendy Moore manages to stay abreast of the scarcely plausible shenanigans, the chief and most disastrous of which - how Mary broke with Nabob Gray on the eve of her marriage to him and married Stoney - test credulity to the limit. ... Wendy Moore delivers the full ghastliness with brilliant panache and iI felt decidedly queasy at the end of it.' Duncan Fallowell, Daily Express
‘An unbelievably tense denouement which any work of Hollywood fiction would struggle to match’ Scotland on Sunday Read the review
'The remarkable story of one woman’s triumph over years of appalling violence and abuse.' Daily Express, preview of the year
'Riveting Biography ... Lured by a fortune hunter into marriage, Mary Eleanor Bowes struggles to eescape his cruelty for a life of her own in an astonishing story of survival in 18th-century England.' Woman and Home
‘A faithful account of a very nasty example of Georgian misogyny’ Philippa Stockley, Evening Standard
‘Drawing on such thrilling material and based on close archival research, Moore’s elegantly-written book recounts the twist of fate that left a loaded countess hitched to a violent fraudster. Her book is as careful as it is compelling, a steady story built on sound knowledge of Georgian history. … It is such a tragic tale we might wish it was a fiction but Wedlock is all the more enthralling for its grounding in historical fact.’ Hannah Greig, History Today
‘Moore’s ... true tale is heart-poundingly powerful, evoking a decadent period and the cruelties that underpinned the elegant façade of Georgian society.’ Iain Finlayson, Saga magazine
... if this doesn't put you off matrimony, nothing will. Barbara Millar, Scottish Review Read the review
Daily Mail: Read a digest of the book click here
The Scotsman: Read my article on Mary Eleanor Bowes's kidnap by her estranged husband click here
Pre-publication reviews of Wedlock
'The tragic history of Mary, Countess of Strathmore, is more than a cautionary tale. Mary is a true heroine: a survivor and a fighter against a brutish husband and an uncaring society. Wendy Moore succeeds admirably in describing a marriage that was forged in hell but lived on earth.' Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana
'Wendy Moore tells an extraordinary family history deployed against the vividly depicted background of Georgian England.' Anne de Courcy, author of Snowdon: The Biography
'Drawing on her extensive research and sure grasp of the period, Wendy Moore has produced a gem. Her compelling account of the feisty Countess of Strathmore is a beautifully written page-turner of a book.' Julia Fox, author of Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford
'To call the truth stranger than fiction is, in the case of Mary, Countess of Strathmore, an outrageous understatement. WEDLOCK is the incredible story of her transformation from one of eighteenth-century England's richest, most free-wheeling heiresses into a piteous victim of a cruel, manipulative abuser into--eventually--an improbable poster-child for modern women's rights. This book is what all history should be: exciting, inspiring, impossible to forget.' Caroline Weber, author of Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette wore to the Revolution
'What a story! A beautiful, wealthy countess, accustomed to a life of cosseted privilege, is deceived by an almost impossibly dastardly scoundrel. In Wendy Moore's skillful hands, the decadent and complex world of eighteenth century England, from the broad lawns and exquisite gardens of vast country estates to the Dickensian murk of the London courts, springs to life in all of its gorgeous detail. A darkly fascinating tale of seduction and domestic abuse.' Nancy Goldstone, author of Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe
A sprightly feminist biography of a British heiress. Mary Eleanor Bowes (1749 - 1800) was the only child of the enormously wealthy George Bowes, owner of abundant coal deposits in County Durham and Yorkshire. She was educated by a slew of tutors and earned the admiration of her doting father, who died when she was 11, leaving the young girl under the lax attention of aunts. As the idea of marrying for love was gaining currency - and there was nobody to check her impulses - Mary Eleanor first married John Lyon, the handsome, reserved older ninth Earl of Strathmore, with whom she had little in common. After effectively signing over her family's properties to him, he ran up ruinous debts before leaving her a widow before the age of 30, with five children. Less than a year later, she was essentially duped into believing that an ardent admirer and cunning Irish opportunist, Andrew Robinson Stoney, fought a duel over her and lay dying; recklessly, she married him in 1777. Despite a miraculous recovery, Stoney proved to be a libertine, gambler, crook, wife-beater and all-around villain who made Mary Eleanor's life hell for nearly a decade. Moore (The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery, 2005) vividly demonstrates that despite enjoying every material advantage, Mary Eleanor was virtually imprisoned and disenfranchised in her two marriages. The author skillfully chronicles her ultimate escape and vindication through the courts, emphasizing how the Bowes' sensational divorce case paved the way for the reform of divorce and custody laws in England.A rollicking good tale that effectively illustrates the level of marital entrapment endured by women of the Georgian era. (Kirkus Reviews on Amazon.co.uk)
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Read the blogs
Book of the Week - 18th Century Domestic Violence
New Wendy Moore biography on Mary Eleanor Bowes
Reviews of The Knife Man
‘Moore’s tireless devotion to detail brings the man and his maverick career vividly, compellingly, and gruesomely to life … Medicine needs more John Hunters, and biography needs more Wendy Moores.’
– New York Times Book Review
‘Wendy Moore has done justice to this marvellous man in a biography packed with gruesome facts and eye-opening perceptions. It is an accomplishment and a splendid read.’
- The Times
‘Excellent … Wendy Moore has helped to pay the debt we all owe to this short-tempered dyslexic healer’
– Sunday Telegraph
‘A gruesome but fascinating biography … Definitely not for the squeamish, this visceral portrait offers a wonderful insight into sickness, suffering and surgery in the 18th century. Excellent.’
- The Guardian Read full review
'A fresh biography of Hunter has been overdue for some time. Wendy Moore's book is just the thing.'
- The Independent Read full review
‘Moore’s biography is an absolute intellectual delight … This is a stylish, fascinating and compelling story of an unsung Scottish pioneer.’
- Scotland on Sunday
‘This is a fine piece of work and I found it hard to believe that it is the author’s first book. … It is carefully researched, engagingly written and generously illustrated.’
- Sunday Herald
‘Moore has written a fast-moving, vivid life which is not for the faint-hearted … Wendy Moore has a remarkable tale to tell, and she tells it with vim and gusto.’
- The Spectator
‘Wendy Moore … is to be congratulated on this latest account of the life and times of John Hunter.’
- The British Medical Journal
‘Moore’s complex portrayal nicely balances the rigor of the historian with the art of the storyteller. The Knife Man makes for fascinating, often macabre reading, and it will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in the history of medicine.’
- New England Journal of Medicine
‘Always vivid and entertaining … The Knife Man leaves one entranced with Moore’s hero and the age in which he lived.’
- Literary Review
‘A stunning, gruesomely compelling biography … Brilliant’
- Alison Weir, author and historian
‘I don’t think I’ve ever read a biography that I’ve enjoyed quite as much as this one … It’s a winner all round – and now I’ve finished it, I’m going to start all over again.’
- Claire Rayner, writer, broadcaster and health adviser
Readers' reviews
From Barnes and Noble.com A very engaging book! *****
From Amazon.com Average customer review *****
From Amazon.co.uk Average customer review *****