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

The remarkable story of one woman's triumph over years of appalling violence and abuse (Caroline Jowett 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 (Sarah Vine THE TIMES)

This splendid book, well researched and richly detailed, is as gripping as any novel (Michael Arditti DAILY TELEGRAPH)

mesmerising... entertainingly digressive and rigorously researched (George Pendle FINANCIAL TIMES)

Mary's escape, her abduction by Stoney and dramatic rescue are grippingly told (Marianne Brace THE INDEPENDENT)

Moore has meticulously constructed an ever more compelling tale (Lydia Syson THE GUARDIAN)

Wedlock is the best biography that I have read in a long time. It's gripping, addictive and painstakingly researched (Andrea Wulf MAIL ON SUNDAY)

gallops headlong towards an unbelievably tense denouement which any work of Hollywood fiction would struggle to match (Marc Horne SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY)

brilliantly researched (Claire Harman SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

Moore makes a gripping narrative (Sarah Bakewell SUNDAY TIMES)

When Mary Eleanor Bowes, the Countess of Strathmore, was abducted in Oxford Street in broad daylight in 1786, the whole country was riveted to news of the pursuit. The only daughter of a wealthy coal magnate, Mary Eleanor had led a charmed youth. Precocious and intelligent, she enjoyed a level of education usually reserved for the sons of the aristocracy. Mary was only eleven when her beloved father died, making her the richest heiress in Britain, and she was soon beset by eager suitors. Her marriage, at eighteen, to the beautiful but aloof Earl of Strathmore, was one of the society weddings of the year. With the death of the earl some eight years later, Mary re-entered society with relish and her salons became magnets for leading Enlightenment thinkers - as well as a host of new suitors. Mary soon fell under the spell of a handsome Irish soldier, Andrew Robinson Stoney, but scandalous rumours were quick to spread. Swearing to defend her honour, Mary's gallant hero was mortally wounded in a duel - his dying wish that he might marry Mary. Within hours of the ceremony, he seemed to be in the grip of a miraculous recovery. Wedlock tells the story of one eighteenth-century woman's experience of a brutal marriage, and her fight to regain her liberty and justice. Subjected to appalling violence, deception, kidnap and betrayal, the life of Mary Eleanor Bowes is a remarkable tale of triumph in the face of overwhelming odds.