England's Mistress

August 7, 2006
In this absorbing, well-crafted biography, British historian, lecturer and TV consultant Williams charts the rise of 18th-century England's most celebrated sex symbol, best known as Admiral Nelson's mistress. Setting the rags-to-riches story of Emma Hamilton (1765–1815) in social and historical context, Williams vividly evokes her impoverished childhood and struggle to survive in London as a servant, theater maid and dancer. Williams details the debacle of Emma's life as a high-class courtesan, rescued while pregnant at age 16 by a calculating young aristocrat, Charles Greville, who transformed Emma into a trendsetting star by commissioning a fashionable artist to produce ravishing portraits of her. Creating a convincing psychological portrait of a seductive, ambitious Emma, Williams entertains with an intimate portrayal of her subject's marriage to William Hamilton, British envoy to Naples (and Greville's much older uncle), who shocked high society by making her his wife. Describing Emma's stage-managed seduction of Nelson, and the pair's passionate affair (which was famously tolerated by William Hamilton), culminating in a love child and a shared residence, Williams conveys the fickle nature of Emma's acceptance by high society. Williams's biography is well paced and pitch perfect, as competent in its storytelling as it is in its authoritative analysis of 18th-century class distinctions. Color photo insert.

November 15, 2006
The first new monograph on Emma Hamilton in a generation, independent scholar Williams's biography draws on a wide range of archival and historiographical material, some of it unpublished and newly discovered by the author. With more than a whiff of a Regency novel, the book sometimes reads like a made-for-television special, and indeed a contract has been signed for a television docudrama (with the author as presenter). Nevertheless, this is a lively and engaging study of one of the famousand infamousbeauties of the age. Emma Hamilton (born Amy Lyon) rose from obscure poverty in the north of England to fame and fortune as a celebrated model for the portraitist George Romney, mistress to at least one prominent aristocrat (Lord Charles Greville), and then wife of Sir William Hamilton, one of England's most cultivated diplomats and collectors. The zenith of her career was, of course, her relationship with Horatio Nelson, a liaison whose genesis and tragic end is ably captured here. Renewed interest in Nelson's era following last year's bicentennial of his victory at Trafalgar should generate considerable interest in this title. Recommended for larger public and undergraduate collections. (Illustrations, index, and bibliography not seen).Matt Todd, Northern Virginia Community Coll. Lib., Alexandria

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2006
Historian and TV consultant Williams has fashioned a biography of the ever-intriguing Emma Hamilton that reads like a piece of fiction. This dazzling rags-to-riches tale details the life of eighteenth-century England's most beloved and infamous mistress. Born the daughter of a blacksmith in a poor English mining town, the determined Emma brokered her beauty into a life of luxury and notoriety. Climbing up through society's ranks, she became a desired courtesan, eventually catching the eye of Lord Hamilton, British envoy to Naples. Gaining a modicum of respectability after her marriage to Hamilton, Emma was swept up into a passionate liaison with British naval hero Admiral Nelson. The most publicized affair of their era, the Hamilton-Nelson love affair captured the imagination of an entire generation, catapulting Emma into the public eye in an unprecedented manner. Thanks to her strong background in television production, Williams displays a knack for presenting a sweeping historical story in a vivid and digestible format.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)