Conville & Walsh

After twelve weeks in the top ten of the Sunday Times bestsellers list, WEDLOCK has reached the top spot, becoming the country’s bestselling non-fiction title.

Part of its success seems to have been that, although the facts were meticulously researched and its cast is real, WEDLOCK “is as gripping as any novel” (Telegraph). Wendy Moore specialises in weaving history into narratives that read like thrillers, as she had shown in her debut THE KNIFE MAN. As well as popular success, it has garnered unanimous critical acclaim, with reviews from the Daily Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, Daily Express, The Times, Sunday Times, Independent,Guardian, New York Times and Observer. She even seems to have caught the eye of the celebrities on TV Book Club.

WEDLOCK is the remarkable story of the Countess of Strathmore and her marriage to Andrew Robinson Stoney. Mary Eleanor Bowes was one of Britain’s richest young heiresses. She married the Count of Strathmore who died young, and pregnant with her lover’s child, Mary became engaged to George Gray. Then in swooped Andrew Robinson Stoney. Mary was bowled over and married him within the week. But nothing was as it seemed. Stoney was broke, and his pursuit of the wealthy Countess a calculated ploy. Once married to Mary, he embarked on years of ill treatment, seizing her lands, beating her, terrorising servants, introducing prostitutes to the family home, kidnapping his own sister. But finally after many years, a servant helped Mary to escape. She began a high-profile divorce case that was the scandal of the day and was successful. But then Andrew kidnapped her and undertook a week-long rampage of terror and cruelty until the law finally caught up with him.

Wendy Moore is currently working on the proposal for a new book, HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT WIFE, which promises another gripping slice of narrative history.