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  • Published: 15 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9780099549178
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $35.00
Categories:

King's Mistress, Queen's Servant

The Life and Times of Henrietta Howard




First biography of the remarkable Henrietta Howard - royal mistress and bluestocking in the court of George II.

Henrietta Howard, later Countess of Suffolk, was the long-term mistress and confidante of King George II. She was also, as Tracy Borman's wonderfully readable biography reveals, a dedicated patron of the arts; a lively and talented intellectual in her own right; a victim of adultery; a passionate advocate for the rights of women long before the dawn of feminism. Above all she was a woman of reason in an Age of Reason. The mark that this enigmatic and largely neglected royal mistress left on the society and culture of early Georgian England was to resonate well beyond the confines of the court, and can still be felt today.

  • Published: 15 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9780099549178
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $35.00
Categories:

About the author

Tracy Borman

Tracy Borman studied and taught history at the University of Hull and was awarded a PhD in 1997. She went on to a successful career in heritage, and is now Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust and interim Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces.

Tracy is the author of a number of highly acclaimed books, including Matilda: Queen of the Conqueror and Elizabeth’s Women, which was Book of the Week on Radio 4.She regularly appears on television and radio, and is a contributor to BBC History Magazine.Tracy gives public talks and lectures across the country on a wide range of subjects. She lives in Surrey with her daughter.

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Praise for King's Mistress, Queen's Servant

It is the great strength of Tracy Borman's engaging new biography that, like Alison Weir and David Starkey before her, she manages to throw new light on the influence and careers of women in European courts

Stella Tillyard, Sunday Times

Tracy Borman handles her voluminous material with easy grace

Independent on Sunday

Tracy Borman can tell a good story... [and] her subject is a gift

The Economist

A short and zippy portrait of George II's long-suffering paramour

Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

Borman has certainly found an unsung and unusual heroine, what elevates her biography above the others in its genre is the author's sense of humour

Times Literary Supplement