England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton

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England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 251 ratings · 54 reviews

She was the most famous woman in England–the beautiful model for society painters Joshua Reynolds and George Romney, an icon of fashion, the wife of an ambassador, and the mistress of naval hero Horatio Nelson. But Emma Hamilton had been born to the poverty of a coal-mining town and spent her teenage years working as a prostitute. From the brothels of London to the glitter...more She was the most famous woman in England–the beautiful model for society painters Joshua Reynolds and George Romney, an icon of fashion, the wife of an ambassador, and the mistress of naval hero Horatio Nelson. But Emma Hamilton had been born to the poverty of a coal-mining town and spent her teenage years working as a prostitute. From the brothels of London to the glittering court of Naples and the pretentious country estate of the most powerful admiral in England, British debut historian Kate Williams captures the life of Emma Hamilton with all its glamour and heartbreak.

In lucid, engaging prose, Williams brings to life a complex and intelligent woman. Emma is sensuous, generous, artistic, at once shamelessly seductive and recklessly ambitious. Willing to do anything for love and fame, she sets out to make herself a star–and she succeeds beyond even her wildest dreams. By the age of twenty-six, she leaves behind the precarious life of a courtesan to become Lady Hamilton, wife of Sir William Hamilton–the aging, besotted, and probably impotent British ambassador to the court of Naples.
But everything changes when Lord Nelson steams into Naples harbor fresh from his triumph at the Battle of the Nile and literally falls into Emma’s adoring arms. Their all-consuming romance–conducted amid the bloody tumult of the Napoleonic Wars–makes Emma an international celebrity, especially when she returns to England pregnant with Nelson’s baby.

With a novelist’s flair and an historian’s eye for detail, Williams conjures up the world that Emma Hamilton conquered by the sheer force of her charisma. All but inventing the art of publicity, Emma turned herself into a kind of flesh-and-blood goddess–celebrated by wits and artists, adored by thousands, and, for a time, very rich. Yet Emma was willing to throw it all away for the man she adored.
After four years of archival research and making use of hundreds of previously undiscovered letters and documents, Kate Williams sets the record straight on one of the most fascinating and ravishing women in history. England’s Mistress captures the relentless drive, the innovative style, and the burning passion of a true heroine.(less)

Hardcover, 415 pages

Published October 24th 2006 by Ballantine Books (first published 2006)

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Jan 06, 2011 Lauren Albert rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-autobiography, history-british

I can't do better than Sean O'Hara's review--it is spot on. Williams speculates constantly when she doesn't have facts and on the most trivial matters as when she writes, "Worried about her mother's weak state of health, Emma probably paid out to take a boat up the Rhone..." She has no bases for this assumption nor is there any point in making it.

The speculation eases up later in the book but she then proceeded to infuriate me referring to Hamilton, not once but twice, as a "sex bomb" and claim...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Bettie, Carey

Shelves: audio-books, history, memoir-biography, non-fiction, read-2012

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Kate William's biography of the prostitute who became the mistress of Lord Nelson, despite humble origins.

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Sep 18, 2012 Sherwood Smith added it

Shelves: biography, history-18th-c, history-19th-c

For the longest time, biographical material about Emma Hamilton was difficult to find--either it was repressively short, as befitted a woman "no better than she should be" or else disgustingly salacious. Here's a biography that is sympathetic to women caught in the horrible position of being poor, with few options for earning daily bread.

In the 1770s, when Emma (then Amy) was pretty much on her own, she either had to work under grinding misery for abysmal wages--and could be dismissed on a whim...more For the longest time, biographical material about Emma Hamilton was difficult to find--either it was repressively short, as befitted a woman "no better than she should be" or else disgustingly salacious. Here's a biography that is sympathetic to women caught in the horrible position of being poor, with few options for earning daily bread.

In the 1770s, when Emma (then Amy) was pretty much on her own, she either had to work under grinding misery for abysmal wages--and could be dismissed on a whim, which she was--or she turned to the theater--or to the streets. Emma worked all three career choices before being taken up by Charles Greville, who kept her while she had another man's baby (she was in her mid-teens), and when he tired of her, passed her off to his older uncle, Sir William Hamilton, who treated her well, fell in love with her, and eventually married her. She proved to be the wife he needed--until Horatio Nelson sailed into port, after which Emma and Nelson became what the other needed, until Nelson's tragic death at Trafalgar. Emma outlived him by a little over ten years.

So much are the basic facts. A great deal was subsequently published about Emma, as she became a celebrity before she ever laid eyes on Nelson. Though she never hit her humble origins, she didn't talk much about them, and about poor women there is scant material, so what we get in the early part of this book is a vivid look at what life in London was like during the mid-century--and a whole lot of guesswork about what might have happened to Emma and her family, and what they might have thought. In fact, all the way through there is a lot of uncited glimpses into minds and motives--usually the playground of the fictioneer.

The book becomes more trustworthy once Emma moves to Naples, about which a great deal is written. Even more vivid is the picture Williams paints of Neopolitan life before and during the French Revolution, and the scary days when Napoleon's forces were on the march toward the south.

Equally descriptive is the Hamilton/Hamilton/Nelson menage, but once again I was surprised to see nothing said about Winifred Gerin's careful work proving that Emma had twins, and that she kept only one of the girls. (There is a reference in the Williams book to one of Nelson's letters that refers to twins, which Williams blithely explains is a sexual reference. Where did she get that?)

So to sum up, I'd say: this eminently readable biography blurs the line between fact and fiction. It does have a splendid biography, and is full of interesting photos.(less)

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Jul 31, 2011 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars

An amazing book!! So insightful and very well written. Lady Hamilton is brought to life once again through an excellently researched, highly entertaining biography. Having known very little about her before I read her story, I now find her fascinating and have not stopped finding out more about since finishing. I would love to see a film as popular The Duchess made about her, as the two were apparently quite well acquainted and shared a similar level of fame and media interest. Their shared love...more

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May 02, 2011 Tim Pendry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, british, cultural-studies, eighteenth-century, espionage, fashion, feminism, history, history-of-art, sexuality-erotica

This is an exceptional biography at so many levels. It recovers not so much a person as a period.

Emma, Lady Hamilton, was a clever but perhaps not always intelligent person of great beauty and charm, and acting skills, who rose from extreme poverty to become the wife of an ambassador and the mistress of a national hero, Lord Nelson.

Many biographies of such women present romantic fantasies – the sort of rubber-necking at history of those women who wish life was like a Jane Austen novel. This book...more

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Aug 09, 2009 Gerry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I never realised what a courtesan Amy Lyon/Emma Hart/Emma Hamilton was, no wonder she changed her name twice before marrying! Kate Williams brings not only Emma to life but also breathes life into 18th and early 19th century England. Emma had a difficult childhood and was quickly put into service, which she decided was not for her. She therefore bettered herself and was quickly a favourite model of George Romney, who painted hundreds of portaits of her. She had a child by Sir Harry Fetherstonhau...more

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May 17, 2010 Sean O'Hara rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of trashy Kitty Kelley biographies

Shelves: biography

You know what I like about historical biographies? There's no sensationalistic scandal-mongering. Biographers can't pay a maid $5000 to dish dirt. There aren't any former-friends or school-mates who can come forward with an axe to grind. Historical biographies are histories and deal in facts, not gossip.

Well, normally.

In England's Mistress, Kate Williams does her damnedest to bring Kitty Kelley-style biography to the 18th Century. The book is more supposition and innuendo than fact.

This is appa...more You know what I like about historical biographies? There's no sensationalistic scandal-mongering. Biographers can't pay a maid $5000 to dish dirt. There aren't any former-friends or school-mates who can come forward with an axe to grind. Historical biographies are histories and deal in facts, not gossip.

Well, normally.

In England's Mistress, Kate Williams does her damnedest to bring Kitty Kelley-style biography to the 18th Century. The book is more supposition and innuendo than fact.

This is apparent right from the get-go. Emma Hamilton's childhood is shrouded in the obscurity. Just look at her Wikipedia entry and note how little info there is about her early life. Yet Williams spends several chapters here, spinning a salacious story out of nothing.

We start with Emma's father. Practically nothing is known about him apart from his name (Henry Lyon), occupation (blacksmith at a local mine) and that he died shortly after Emma's birth. Williams concludes that he didn't die in a work related accident. Her evidence for this is that there's no record of an accident (reasonable but hardly conclusive) or that Emma's mother received a pay-out from the mine (more compelling, but still not conclusive). Williams also discounts the possibility that Henry was tubercular, based on the premise that Emma's mother, Mary, wouldn't have married him if he were (reasonable, but women have been known to behave unreasonably out of love). But then Williams doesn't discuss any other diseases that might've killed a working man in the 18th Century; she jumps straight to her preferred theory -- that Henry died from alcoholism or a booze-related incident. Her evidence is simply that alcohol-related deaths were quite common among the working-class of the time.

Okay, all that's fairly reasonable, and if Williams just left it there I'd be fine with it. Henry's dead, doesn't matter how, let's move on. But Williams doesn't do that. Instead, she builds an even more tenuous theory on top of her already shaky conclusion, and decides that either Henry must've committed suicide, or Mary killed him. The evidence for this is simply that Mary left the town where they were living and moved in with her parents -- she must've had something to hide!

Because, y'know, a young, widowed mother would never move back to her parents for financial reasons. The most absurd part comes when Williams claims, no source provided, that widows at the time were often suspected of witchcraft and it would've been dangerous for Mary to remain in the mining town. Um ... what? Henry died in 1765, thirty years after England repealed the laws against witchcraft. I suppose some ignorant hicks might've clung to old superstitions, but such an assertion needs good sources, which Williams doesn't provide.

Then for the next several chapters, Williams keeps mentioning Mary's dark secret. Everything about Emma's early life is filtered through this unproven theory, until I reached the point of throwing the book across the room. Alas, it's an audiobook, so I had nothing to throw.(less)

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Mar 21, 2012 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I don’t have time to read, I often download audio books from I Tunes. It gives me the chance to ‘read’ while doing the housework or driving. I have just finished listening to England’s Mistress, while un packing boxes after our move.

I have read very mixed reviews of the book and didn’t really know what to expect. I absolutely loved Williams’s other book Becoming Queen so was excited to see if her earlier book was as good.

England’s Mistress tells the story of Emma Hamilton , famous social cl...more When I don’t have time to read, I often download audio books from I Tunes. It gives me the chance to ‘read’ while doing the housework or driving. I have just finished listening to England’s Mistress, while un packing boxes after our move.

I have read very mixed reviews of the book and didn’t really know what to expect. I absolutely loved Williams’s other book Becoming Queen so was excited to see if her earlier book was as good.

England’s Mistress tells the story of Emma Hamilton , famous social climber and mistress to Horatio Nelson. Although not as polished as Becoming Queen, England’s Mistress flows well and paints a wonderful picture of life in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The first few chapters describing Emma’s early life are in effect fiction. There is so little known about Emma’s early life that Williams has had to fill in the gaps herself. The problem really is that there are too many gaps to fill. Although well researched, I did feel the early chapters were a little too fluffed out.

This does improve as the book moves on and the author has more material to work with. I really enjoyed reading about Emma’s life before she became famous, each small scandalous step giving her higher status. It is fascinating hearing about her work as an artist’s model and her many many sittings for Romney.

Williams gives the sense that Emma is different from all the other poor country girls who came to London for a better life. Emma uses her beauty and talent all through her life to get what she wants, be it as an artist’s model, courtesan, entertainer or mistress.

The book’s slightly fictitious feel works better as it goes on, and helps the reader to empathise and understand the feelings and desisions of its subject. Key themes throughout the book are well covered, and include Emma’s reliance on the men around her, her need to be a mother and her need for high social status even if it leaves her destitute.

Emma’s life is particularly interesting because of the time in which she lived. The french revolution and the rise of Napoleon all went on around her, with as much turmoil as her personal life. One of the highlights of the book has to be Emma’s life in Naples which Williams covers extensively. Williams’s ability to describe the events of the time with relevance to her subject works very well.

I loved the section on Emma’s life with Nelson in Merton. As someone who was born and raised in the area where they once lived together, I found this all the more fascinating.

In conclusion I think this is a very enjoyable book, and I think it can be praised and criticised for the same thing. Williams tells a very good story and the fine line between fact and fiction which Williams crosses on several occasions are the very thing that makes this a great read. I feel the book would not have been so good had the gaps been left unfilled.

Taken from my blog www.vintagefrills.wordpress.com (less)

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Aug 12, 2012 Jen3n rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, history

This book sits at at a cross roads where speculative fiction and historical biography meet. But that isn't the problem I had with it.

After I finished reading it, I went and looked over reviews that other people had written about it to see if anyone else came to similar conclusions. They did, sort of. The largest issue most people seemed to take was the large amount of speculation that the author put into the narrative. Didn't bother me a bit, mostly because it was well-researched and historicall...more This book sits at at a cross roads where speculative fiction and historical biography meet. But that isn't the problem I had with it.

After I finished reading it, I went and looked over reviews that other people had written about it to see if anyone else came to similar conclusions. They did, sort of. The largest issue most people seemed to take was the large amount of speculation that the author put into the narrative. Didn't bother me a bit, mostly because it was well-researched and historically accurate speculation. We really don't know anything more than the bare facts of Emma Hamilton's life before she became a celebrity whore (in pretty much any way that "celebrity whore" can be interpreted) because she was very poor, and history does not record the childhood of the very poor. Especially not in the late eighteenth century. So what we DO know about her childhood, came directly from her, and she didn't like to talk about it. What that author did was look at Emma Hamilton's family, the part of the country she was living in at the time, the way that other people in that place and time lived, and said: this is what most likely happened during the those parts of her life we don't know about and why. I can live with that, especially if I'm reading a book for fun. I know where to go if I want accepted, rigid, accurate, scholarly work on historical figures. I knew what I was getting into at this end. So the speculation didn't bother me.

What DID bother me was that this book stopped being an attempt at a biography very early in and reveled itself to be fawning hero-worship. And there are many things you can say about Lady Hamilton, but that she was in any way heroic or admirable isn't really one of them. She was a really selfish, vain creature who not only used people to achieve the only thing she really cared about in life (to be rich and famous) but who allowed herself to be used as well. I don't just mean the whore stuff. There are and have been plenty of people who have had sex for money who are well adjusted and perfectly alright. No, I mean that Lady Hamilton, before she became Lady Hamilton, who let people turn her into a thing without any will or self possession. She let people use her like a thing. And I don't think that is at all romantic in any sense of the word.

Plus, the book got less well written as it went on. Like the author got caught p in some sort of pseudo-religious frenzy and was frothing at the mouth too much to write a complete sentence.

So. Disappointing.(less)

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Feb 09, 2013 Dorothy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

Eh. The story of Emma is rather interesting and a true rags to riches to rags cautionary tale. It has all the components of great late Georgian stories: classism, snobbery, sex, beauty, courtesans, playboys and pimps, absurd wealth and despairing destitution, gender struggles, avarice, deluded grandeur and real historical drama. That said, the author's adulation of her heroine blinded her to Emma's fatal flaws and more disappointingly missed an opportunity to draw culturally apt reflections on t...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Amblingbooks.com marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, people-biographies

Emma Hamilton was England's first superstar. She fought her way out of dire poverty to become a fashion icon, an Ambassador's wife, a confidante of both Queen Marie Antoinette and the Queen of Naples, and the mistress of Lord Nelson, England's greatest military hero. Drawing on hundreds of previously undiscovered letters, England's Mistress follows Emma's dramatic journey from the slums of Northern England to the Royal Court of Naples, and from the brothels of St. James's to the tragedy and glor...more

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Dec 16, 2008 Korynn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

A fairly extensive biography of the life of Emma Hamilton nee Amy Lyon. It is fascinating how a young girl of no skill manages to use beauty and sex as a way to gain entry into a level of society she would have otherwise been denied. It is more than amazing that she appeared to have tremendous luck in choosing a husband and a lover that were willing to share her. However, too late, Lady Hamilton discovers that her wiles do not make up for the utter lack of compassion that greets her after her hu...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, world-history

This biography of Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Admiral Lord Nelson should have been a five star read for me as I have always been interested in Nelson and his life, both military and personal. And Emma was the romantic side his life......he loved her to distraction as evidenced by his letters, eye witness accounts, and his attempts to have her looked after in case of his death. But somehow I was not as engaged by the book as I thought I would be......and frankly, I am not sure why it left me s...more

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Nov 10, 2010 Abbey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, history, political, favorites, multiple-readings

Recipe for a great historical biography: Four years of careful, extensive, expensive research, plus a writing style that reads as easily as a novel. Stir in sympathy for the foibles, failings, and fabulous strengths of characters, but don't fawn over the main focus character. Cook until delicious.

Kate Williams seemingly found every primary, secondary, and tertiary source on Emma Hamilton/Amy Lyon. She mixes her storytelling skills with sleuthing skills, especially when talking about Emma's earl...more Recipe for a great historical biography: Four years of careful, extensive, expensive research, plus a writing style that reads as easily as a novel. Stir in sympathy for the foibles, failings, and fabulous strengths of characters, but don't fawn over the main focus character. Cook until delicious.

Kate Williams seemingly found every primary, secondary, and tertiary source on Emma Hamilton/Amy Lyon. She mixes her storytelling skills with sleuthing skills, especially when talking about Emma's early life. I don't mind that she takes some leaps into speculation and extrapolation during Emma's early life, such as admitting that there is very little evidence for Emma's everyday life as a maid in a particular household. She shores up her speculations about what it was probably like by examining the household records of another house nearby. She dug up tax records, parish records, rare books in libraries from California to Scotland, original, unpublished manuscripts, legal records, diaries, hundreds of previously undiscovered letters, illustrations from obscure periodicals, and memorabilia such as Nelson trinkets and one of Emma's actual dresses from her 6th-generation descendant. Her "select" bibliography takes up nine pages. Kate Williams did her homework and by the time she sat down to write, she had earned an encyclopedic understanding of her subject and the setting.

One of the hardest things about knowing so much about a topic is to edit it into a readable account without going into too much detail without a clear purpose. For instance, Williams uncovered facts about the changing financial stability of Emma's lover's wife's uncle, decades before Emma met Horatio Nelson. But even though Williams ran down records of this bureaucrat on a forgettable island and probably knew many more extraneous facts that were not germane to her argument, she doesn't force her readers to hear more about him than the facts it takes to support her speculation: the uncle charmed and flattered Nelson into marrying his mousy, widowed, impoverished, anxious, frail, perhaps fertility-impaired niece with whatever vague lies it took to convince Nelson that he would inherit much, much more than what was actually available. Was that the beginning of Nelson's fury and rejection of his unexciting wife? Would Nelson have been drawn so powerfully to Emma's glittering party lifestyle if his wife had been the heiress and hostess he imagined she would be? Williams leads the reader to believe this may be the case, but not before laying a careful pavement of researched fact. This is just one example of Williams' process: she researched everything available, and then rather than presenting a dry, lifeless treatise like many biographies, she brought Emma to brilliant, vibrant life. (less)

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May 07, 2009 Helena rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: nelson fans , biography fans

I was just re-organising my books and saw this one.It was an excellent read It describes the life of Emma Hamilton born with nothing but a hard life ahead of her who becomes the most famous woman of her times .This is a serious biographical work which is extremely readable . I have lent it to many friends .I have subsequently read a few novels on the life of Nelson .What a short man of few personal charms but his fame . Nelson's harbour is worth a visit in Antigua to get a feel of what life must...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Karina added it

I don't read too many biographies (partially due to a lack of knowing who will make a good read, partially I find them to be dry) so to my suprise I really liked this!! There was plenty of historical background, but not so much that I was drowned in it. The author's writing style was modern, as well, which really helped keep it an easy read. I loved how the book included reproductions of the artwork Emma Hamilton had been painted in in her day, as well as Nelson Memorabilia and cartoons from the...more

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Aug 28, 2010 Marcus Gipps rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read Becoming Queen a while ago, and greatly enjoyed it. Unusual for me, as I'm not normally a history or biography buff. So I thought I'd better go back and read the first of Kate's books. This one is really very good as well - it tells one story (unlike Becoming Queen), which I think benefits it, although it took me a while to get used to the lack of concrete information about Emma Hamilton's early life. A cracking read, though, and I had no idea how little I knew about the period. Out now,...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Girl with her Head in a Book rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, history, 2013-challenge

I was given this book at Christmas time by a friend of the family who is a bookseller, which was interesting because I don't think I would ever have picked this up myself. This is perhaps unfair, because I read one of Williams' other books Becoming Queen a few months ago and really enjoyed it ... Emma Hamilton is just one of those people from history who held very little interest for me. I read Amanda Foreman's Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire biography when I was thirteen and loved that even th...more I was given this book at Christmas time by a friend of the family who is a bookseller, which was interesting because I don't think I would ever have picked this up myself. This is perhaps unfair, because I read one of Williams' other books Becoming Queen a few months ago and really enjoyed it ... Emma Hamilton is just one of those people from history who held very little interest for me. I read Amanda Foreman's Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire biography when I was thirteen and loved that even though a lot of the extra-marital comings and goings confused me but aside from that one book, I've never really explored anything further about the eighteenth century. The only things that I knew about Emma Hamilton are the things that everybody knows - the married Lady Hamilton who had an incredibly public affair with Nelson, had his baby with the full knowledge of her husband but then died penniless and alone after Nelson's death. It's a morality tale about the perils of adultery. Still, the truth was in fact much more interesting and also strangely inspiring ...

Emma Hamilton was no high-spirited aristocrat who succumbed to lust/Nelson's advances - her life was an incredible rags-to-riches-then-back-to-rags-again tale of a very ambitious woman dragging herself out of the working class and becoming one of the most famous women of the age. She was born Amy Lyon, a coal-miner's daughter on the Wirral in Cheshire. Her father was probably from Ormskirk, which was weird because that is really near where my parents live - basically, Emma was a Lancashire lass. Even in adulthood, decades after she had left the county, people commented that Emma had a strong Lancastrian accent. From that point on, I was ready to have sympathy for her (I lived in Lancashire from when I was ten, it's the closest I get to feeling like I'm actually 'from' somewhere). Still, clearly there was more to the book than that if I kept on rooting ofr Emma - after all, there are plenty of people from my local area who I'm not that keen on. Indeed, Williams did a wonderful job at describing a woman who seems completely believable - there were a lot of things that Emma did that I would never have do, most of her life was just so completely different to my own but yet, I could understand why she behaved in the way she did. She was so much more than just Nelson's mistress.

For my full review:
http://girlwithherheadinabook.blogspo...(less)

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Mar 04, 2011 Brittany rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, history

This was a wonderful book to read when one is on a bus for eight hours. It's absorbing, interesting, and at least nominally "nonfiction," so you feel like you're maybe learning something.

I kept running into references to Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson's relationships in fiction and started looking for a good book to read on the subject. This book both was and was not the book I was looking for.

On its strong side, it's clear that Williams put a ton of research into this book. She traipsed all...more This was a wonderful book to read when one is on a bus for eight hours. It's absorbing, interesting, and at least nominally "nonfiction," so you feel like you're maybe learning something.

I kept running into references to Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson's relationships in fiction and started looking for a good book to read on the subject. This book both was and was not the book I was looking for.

On its strong side, it's clear that Williams put a ton of research into this book. She traipsed all across Europe and pursued mountains of primary source material. She is also clearly a very curious, clever woman, with a lot of imagination and the ability to expand upon scant information. This is a valuable asset in a researcher, as long as it is balanced by a healthy respect for the facts, and a consciousness that while we can speculate and extrapolate from facts, we can't know anything that isn't supported by facts.

At times in this book, Williams commits the academic sin of letting her imagination run away with her. Depending on what you were looking for in a book, this could be either good or bad. If you were looking for a ripping read, this is wonderful. She comes up with very colorful, exciting hypotheses that at least started based in fact. However, if you are reading this for historical edification, these flights of fancy get in the way. Yes, it's possible that Emma's grandfather died of alcohol overdose or was killed by Emma's grandmother, but it's also just as likely he died in an accident or of an illness that just wasn't documented at the time. Yes, it's possible that Emma protested, fussed, and didn't have a physical relationship with Nelson until her husband subtly gave her the go-ahead, but it seems a tad more likely that (as her husband was getting on in years) she just dove in for the glory of being Admiral Lord Nelson's lover.

Williams commits the other sin biographers are prone to, that of falling in love with her subject. Emma Hamilton, who began life as Amy Lyons and hoped to end it as Emma, Lady Nelson, is a very dynamic woman. She was clearly beautiful and charismatic. She stirred pots all over Europe, and interacted with some of the best people. However, Williams glosses over some of the less-savory facts about Emma. She consistently downplays Emma's emotional insecurities and neediness. (From other sources, I know that Emma was rather famous for the kind of cattiness that includes telling your friends a party isn't much to dress for and then showing up yourself in a cloth-of-gold dress with a diamond tiara).

Williams also makes much of Emma's love for both William Hamilton and Horatio Nelson. I am sure that Emma loved both of these men. However, Williams skates right over the fact that Emma reinvented herself--her morals, clothes, hobbies, and manner of speech--for each of the men in her life. She went from being a party girl for the first man to take her in, to a reformed woman for Greville, to the perfect ambassador's wife for Hamilton, to the perfect lover and PR manager for Nelson. What is never really clear is what Emma wanted for Emma. The answer may just be that she wanted to be rich, famous, envied, and adored, but it wasn't explored to my satisfaction.

This was a very enjoyable book if you take it with a lot of salt, much like a margarita, and don't let some of the more egregious logical leaps offend you. It was the perfect weekend vacation read, and I would recommend it to anyone curious about the period. Not as a resource, but more of an introduction.
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Jun 19, 2011 Meg rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011

This is the book that made me realize how much I love my Kindle books: lugging it around as the author annoyed me increasingly only increased my annoyance with the whole endeavor of reading this book in dead tree format.

You know how people say a good nonfiction book can read like a novel? In this case, that's not a compliment. Williams should have written a historical fiction "biography", because that's essentially what this is, though it's not so compelling. As others have said, there are far t...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Laurie V rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

The biggest revelation I took away from this book is what a dick Horatio Nelson was. He was a flighty fame whore who was needlessly cruel to the wife he abandoned for Emma Hamilton. He also knew very well that Emma would have struggled financially after his death, but he was so deluded into thinking the government would provide for her despite her tenuous position as his mistress that he never took steps to ensure security for her and their daughter. He got himself killed at Trafalgar because he...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Libby Hewitt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-sample

Realistic description of the life/love of one of British history's most fascinating women, a real-life Cinderella who, unfortunately did not live happily EVER AFTER, but found the undisputed "Prince Charming" of her era and enjoyed great love, wealth and popularity for a time "That Hamilton Woman" is one of my favorite movies, so I see Vivien Leigh in my mind's eye as I read this book, but so far the depictions in the book and my mental pictures coincide amazingly.

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Dec 20, 2011 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars

rating is between a 4.5 and a 5.... did skim pieces at times... bet Susan and Marney have read this one... as she was a model for Romney, Reynolds, etc... amazing how someone at those times could pull herself up (course born w/ beauty) and work so hard (those performances must have been exhausting) and learn so much (self-educate.. really an interesting story... and much about the Naples front, too.

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May 06, 2012 Meredith rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a biography of Emma Hamilton. It's more investigative than anything else I've seen and is well-written. It is extremely thorough and makes some good points. Plus it finally looks at Emma from the female perspective and with the attitudes toward and opportunities for women at this time kept firmly in mind.

I've seen criticism of it that it leaps to conclusions, but I don't agree. Williams points out "This was the usual way of things, but this is what so-and-so did, let's think about w...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Flora Dain rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sexpots

Lively, chatty account of one of the most colourful women of the Napoleonic age, from her humble origins in a Lancashire village to wife of the Ambassador to Naples, intimate friend of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples(sister of Marie Antoinette) and, most famously, Nelson's lover. Fascinating - if a little modest about her sexual prowess

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Nov 03, 2012 Victoria Evangelina Belyavskaya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audible-com, biography, history, in-english, read-again

I have enjoyed this book and took it as historical fiction more than the real history book, for the author speculates a lot on the feelings and motives of Emma and others. Yet the story itself is simply fascinating, and the amount of details provided makes you feel like one of Emma's many social acquaintances.

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Apr 27, 2012 Melanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I first saw her portrait (Lady Hamilton as Nature) at NYC's Frick Collection, I wanted to learn more about artist George Romney's beautiful subject. Lady Emma Hamilton (born Amy Lyons) led a fascinating rags to riches (to rags) life. She became an icon and celebrity of her time, known for her beauty and many paintings that she posed for. This book gives a very detailed account of her glamorous life and love triangle between her elderly husband and Napoleonic war hero Horatio Nelson. I found...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Rachael McDiarmid rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first book I've read on Emma Hamilton and it was so well researched and well written that I won't need to read anything else! Kate Williams has produced a gem of a book on this absolutely fascinating woman. If you are looking for a book on Emma, this is it.

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Sep 05, 2010 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a sad look into a life that seemed desolate. The biography itself was easy to read, it was written almost like a story, but the subject matter was sad and left me a little depressed, but also fascinated.

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May 31, 2012 Cheryl rated it 2 of 5 stars

See the one and two star reviews below - I couldn't agree more. Could we really get any more speculative about this woman's life? I doubt it.

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About Kate Williams

Kate studied her BA at Somerville College, Oxford where she was a College Scholar and received the Violet Vaughan Morgan University Scholarship. She then took her MA at Queen Mary, University of London and her DPhil at Oxford, where she received a graduate prize. She also took an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway. She now teaches at Royal Holloway.

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