A Look at What’s New In ‘Star Of The Morning’?

Thirteen key figures in Hester’s life, many of whom do not appear, and none of whose stories are fully told, in previous biographies…

Thomas Pitt, Lord Camelford – Hester’s first cousin and her first love

William Noel Hill – Hester’s would-be suitor

Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith – another cousin, a national hero who defeated Napoleon at Acre in 1790

General Francisco de Miranda – the flamboyant revolutionary

Jeremy Bentham – the renowned philosopher and thinker

Sir Joseph Banks – the celebrated naturalist

Nafissa Khatun, al Bayda, ‘The White One’ – wife of the Mameluke Murad Bey

Vincent-Yves Boutin – Napoleon’s secret agent extraordinaire

Dayr el Fadil – Sheikh of the Bedouin Anazeh

Ali Bey el Abbassi, alias Domingo Badia y Leblich – the Spanish-born spy and explorer

Nicholas Vansittart – the British Foreign Secretary, who corresponded covertly with Hester

Henry Brougham – the brilliant barrister and future Lord Chancellor

Almaz – her last lover in Djoun.

In addition, Star of the Morning also sheds new vital light on her closest relationships, with men like the diplomat Granville Leveson-Gower; General Sir John Moore, her younger lover, Michael Bruce – and the freebooting Piedmontese spy Théodore Lascaris de Vintemille.