Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match
Wendy Moore
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.
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About Wendy Moore
Reviews for Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Wedlock is the best biography that I have read in a long time. It's gripping, addictive and painstakingly researched
MAIL ON SUNDAY
The remarkable story of one woman's triumph over years of appalling violence and abuse
DAILY EXPRESS
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
Mesmerising . . . entertainingly digressive and rigorously researched
FINANCIAL TIMES
Mary's escape, her abduction by Stoney and dramatic rescue are grippingly told
INDEPENDENT
Moore has meticulously constructed an ever more compelling tale
GUARDIAN
Gallops headlong towards an unbelievably tense denouement which any work of Hollywood fiction would struggle to match
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
Biography needs more Wendy Moores
NEW YORK 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
'Moore fashions a gripping narrative'
SUNDAY TIMES
'Wendy Moore tells her tale with gusto'
SUNDAY 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
gripping and meticulous
DAILY TELEGRAPH
This lurid tale of high-society sadism grips from the first page.
INDEPENDENT
rip-roaring
SUNDAY EVENING POST
Moore paints a fresh, vivid picture of the age
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