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The infamous biography of Emma Hamilton
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PMarione
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Post Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:06 pm    Post subject: The infamous biography of Emma Hamilton Reply with quote

Publishing News Friday 21 September 2007, p.6:

Quote:
Marsh Biography Award shortlist
KATE Williams' debut biography England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Lady Hamilton (Hutchinson) is among the titles in contention for the Marsh Biography Award, presented biennially and established in 1985. The others are Voltaire Almighty by Roger Pearson (Bloomsbury), The Knife Man by Wendy Moore (Bantam Press), Beau Brummell by Ian Kelly (Hodder) and Caesar by Adrian Goldsworthy (Weidenfeld).


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PMarione
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Post Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Alas, poor KW didn't win the prize!

Maybe the jury unexpectedly had read the book.

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alexlitandem



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Post Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 10:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, there is a...
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Peter



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Post Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It was some what disappointing to see that Kate didn't win - although I bought the book I still haven't read it!
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PMarione
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Post Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't!

It's so bad that it will not even give you a good laugh like some Nelsonian novels. It's only irritating with its varnish of academic research. Even the style is childish (even me can see it and I am no good judge of style in English).

There is plenty of good books on EH. Try to sale back your book to some innocent who has not read the critics. Wink

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PMarione
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Post Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 4:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Breaking news!

From KW website:
Quote:
England's Mistress has been optioned by Picture Palace films for TV and film drama. We are currently working on the script.


A winning script for the Golden Turkey Awards and the Golden Raspberry Awards. I already vote 4 razzies:
    the Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets,
    the Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie,
    the Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie,
    the Worst Excuse For Family Entertainment

See http://www.razzies.com/

I hope to steal the 1st copy of the DVD.

I propose Whoopi Goldberg as Emma, Woody Allen as Nelson and Arnold Schawrzenegger as Hamilton but he is occupied somewhere so Stallone will do.

I'll wait for your casting's suggestions to help KW.


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Peter



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Post Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 10:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Patrick,
You seem to be spending some time on Miss Williams' website. Perhaps you are hoping for a part in the film?
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PMarione
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Post Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nope: I have secret sources.

I pity the poor screenwriter who will have to write a script out of all that rubbish.

I'll postulate for the role of the woodpegged cook with the eyepatch.

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PMarione
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Post Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More on the movie from Picture Palace:

ENGLAND'S MISTRESS

Quote:
A 4 x 1 hour series, adapted from the book by Kate Williams. Emma Hamilton was England's first superstar. She fought her way out of 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.


So lucky you it will occupy four of your evenings. Far better than National Geographic Channel.

Picture Palace is not to be confused with Palace Pictures which is best known for The Evil Dead, the Coca Cola Kid and Violated.
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Peter



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Post Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see BBC History is now using Kate Williams - it will soon be fact!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/nelson_emma_01.shtml
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PMarione
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Post Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

After a quick reading of that totally boring article I found at least a KWian jewel:
Quote:
By 1812, she (EH not KW) was in debt for millions of pounds.

Even better than Prinny! At 33, he was only 630,000 pounds in debt and very expert at making them.

A great quality of the lady is that she never reads what she writes. Not even sure that she can read.
Maybe she can postulate as a trader at the Société Générale and make some millions of debt all by herself.

History in the making.
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alexlitandem



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Post Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is it me or was the BBC `piece' written by a slow-witted seven year old for some even slower-witted four year old to proof and to edit? It is just so totally awful.

The grossness of it all. The sheer ugliness of her style - to my personal taste. It is so bling. So very, very, `e'. So reality TV. Get me out of here.

So pants.
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Peter



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Post Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see Miss Williams has got her 'story' in paperback now.


http://www.rnmuseumshop.co.uk/acatalog/books.html
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Post Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:58 pm    Post subject: another example Reply with quote

Emma Hamilton by Kate Williams ; BUILDING A LIBRARY
The Independent on Sunday December 3, 2006

Quote:
Emma Hamilton was the first 18th-century superstar. Her fashions were copied across Europe and yet she was born into dire poverty in 1765 in a Cheshire mining village.

At the age of 12, Emma fled to London, hungry for fame. After a brief spell as a maid, she found herself in Covent Garden, dancing at an exclusive brothel. There, she experienced the glamorous life detailed in Hick-man's Courtesans (2003). Within a few years, she was London's most sought-after painter's muse. Alex Kid-son's George Romney (2002) reproduces some of her luminous portraits.

Emma was 21 when she was in effect sold by her protector to his widowed uncle, the erudite Sir William Hamilton, British ambassador in Naples. The magnificent pictures in Ian Sloan and Kim Jenkins's Vases and Volcanoes (1996) give us glimpses of Emma's life in Sir William's palazzo. With marbles and statues all around her, she began to develop her famous "Attitudes", performances of classical postures that thrilled Europe.

Charmed by Emma's energy, Sir William married her six years later in 1791. He was 60 and she was 26. As he grew older, as David Constantine reveals in Fields of Fire: A Life of Sir William Hamilton (2001), he began to resent his wife's frenetic socialising. The arrival of Horatio Nelson in Naples in 1798 hastened Sir William's feelings of neglect. As Roger Knight recounts in Nelson: the Pursuit of Victory (2005), Nelson had been at sea for nearly 30 years. After his victory over Napoleon's forces at the Battle of the Nile, he was the most famous man in Europe. Emma threw herself at him.

Nelson fell in love with Emma because he recog-nised a soulmate. Until we have a full edited volume of the often stunningly erotic letters of Nelson and Emma, we must rely on The Hamilton and Nelson Papers, edited by Alfred Morrison (1893-4), bowd-lerised to fit Victorian sentiment, and very different to the originals. Fortunately, Colin White has published some new letters in Nelson: the New Letters (2005).

In 1800, Emma, Nelson and Sir William returned to London to set up home together - with Emma conspicuously pregnant with Nelson's child, Horatia.

Emma busied herself infiltrating the high-stakes social set brilliantly drama-tised by Amanda Foreman in Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1997).

After Nelson's death in 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar, Emma fell into debt trying to keep up appearances. Two spells in prison broke her health, and she fled to Calais. She died a few months later, just short of 50, leaving 14-year-old Horatia destitute.


Copyright 2006 The Independent on Sunday.
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