David Constantine Fields Of Fire A Life Sir William Hamilton 2001 En 2001

Synopsis

In a packed and colourful 18th century life, William Hamilton had many careers, interests and incarnations. He was a soldier, a courtier and an MP before becoming a diplomat in Naples. He was a scholar whose work on volcanoes got him elected to the Royal Society; and a collector of vases whose expertise saw him eventually working with Josiah Wedgwood. And yet he became renowned, and most remembered, for his unfortunate part in one of his era's most scandalous menage-a-trois; namely, as the husband of Emma Hamilton during her affair with Lord Nelson. With the use of unpublished materials, Constantine throws new light on that relationship - but his main achievement is to portray his subject in the round, both recovering him as a fascinating figure in his own right and putting that portrait into a properly complex historical setting.