Nelson's Women - Softcover

Tom Pocock

3.67

6 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0233050183 ISBN 13: 9780233050188

Publisher: Andre Deutsch Ltd, 2002

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The fame of Horatio Nelson, as Britain's greatest naval hero, has always been shadowed by the notoriety of his relations with women. His love affair with Lady Hamilton and the subsequent abandonment of his wife have tainted with scandal his achievement in giving his country global supremacy for a century. Yet these two - Emma and Fanny - were only the most prominent of a gallery of young women - family, friends and lovers - who were instrumental in shaping Nelson's life and character. In this book. Tom Pocock examines the characters of the women whose lives were interwoven with the complex, yet charming, personality of Lord Nelson. He illuminates the character of Nelson's mother. who married her social inferior, and his sisters who were torn between their friendships with his wife and his mistress. Nelson's Women provides a fascinating insight into the character of Britain's best-loved naval hero through his relationships with women.

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Review:

There have been plenty of biographies of Nelson, and Pocock's own Horatio Nelson is one of the better ones; but he has found an ingenious and illuminating angle to explore with his latest foray into Nelson studies. Women, it seems, were at the heart of Nelson's life. If you pick up the book hoping for salacious details of Nelson's famous love affair with Lady Hamilton then there are tantalising hints of the "effervescence and sheer carnality" that captivated many men, Nelson included--but Emma Hamilton is the least of it. Women were one constant of Nelson's peripatetic life, from his dearly loved mother who died when he was 9-years-old, through to Horatia, his daughter by Emma. It's partly the contrast in all this that is so fascinating: Nelson was so enthralled by women as to become, Pocock argues, almost feminine himself (although, as the book amply demonstrates, he was always "strongly heterosexual"); at the same time Nelson's greatness lies "of course, in his activities away from female company'". Pocock doesn't give us any of the famous naval battles, but the complex ins-and-outs of Nelson's female relationships, and their relationships with one another, are just as intricate and just as absorbing. A fluently written and intriguing read. --Adam Roberts

About the Author:

Tom Pocock is the author of 18 books (and editor of two more), mostly biographies but including two about his experiences as a newspaper war correspondent. Born in London in 1925 - the son of the novelist and educationist Guy Pocock - he was educated at Westminster School and Cheltenham College, joining the Royal Navy in 1943. He was at sea during the invasion of Normandy and, having suffered from ill-health, returned to civilian life and in 1945 became a war correspondent at the age of 19,the youngest of the Second World War. After four years wth the Hulton Press current affairs magazine group, he moved to the Daily Mail as feature-writer and then Naval Correspondent, becoming Naval Correspondent of The Times in 1952. In 1956, he was a foreign corresponent and special writer for the Daily Express and from 1959 was on the staff of the Evening Standard,as feature writer,Defence Correspondent and war correspondent. For the last decade of his time on the Standard he was Travel Editor. He wrote his first book, NELSON AND HIS WORLD in 1967 on his return from reporting the violence in Aden and his interest in Nelson has continued. Indeed, eight of his books are about the admiral and his contemporaries; his HORATIO NELSON was runner-up for the Whitbread Biography Award of 1987. Tom Pocock has contributed to many magazines and appeared on television documentaries about Nelson and the subject of another of his biographies,the novelist and imperialist Sir Rider Haggard.

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