Miranda Kaufmann – författare

Meet the heiresses. Their dresses are the latest fashion, their rooms Mayfair's most luxurious, their suitors Britain's most powerful men.Their fortunes – blood and sugar.'This is a book you need to read.' Lucy WorsleyGeorgian heiresses are inescapable in British culture. They flutter through Jane Austen’s novels and countless period dramas. Their portraits – painted by Gainsborough, Zoffany, Reynolds – crowd our museums while their lavish estates pepper the countryside. However, a less genteel story lurks beneath the veneer – those glorious balls, dresses and dowries were funded by the exploitation of enslaved men, women and children.Following the lives of nine heiresses and tracing their tainted money from its origins in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean, Miranda Kaufmann reveals a murky world of inheritance, fortune-hunting and human exploitation. From Jane Leigh Perrot, Jane Austen’s light-fingered aunt, to Elizabeth Vassall Fox, who faked her daughter’s death to maintain custody during a tumultuous divorce, Heiresses traces the often scandalous lives of the women who helped build Britain’s empire.Kaufmann also pieces together the lives of the people these heiresses and their families enslaved. There’s Betsy Newton, who escaped from Barbados to London to confront her enslavers face-to-face. Meanwhile in Jamaica, Susanna Augier became a powerful landowner, inheriting her white father’s properties. Her daughter, an eligible heiress, would marry into the British aristocracy.Enlightening, provocative and masterfully researched, Heiresses offers a vital history of enslavement in Britain and the Caribbean.***'A startling insight into the lives of the real “Mrs Rochesters”. The role of women in plantation slavery, as perpetrators and victims is uncovered by a historian at the height of her powers.' Anita Anand, author of The Patient Assassin and co-host of Empire'A perfect balance of critical humour and searing historical insight. A must-read.' Paterson Joseph, actor and author of The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho'Vivid, shocking and compulsively readable... Miranda Kaufmann is not just a fine investigative historian – she is a superb story-teller.' Alex Renton, author of Blood Legacy

Meet the heiresses. Their dresses are the latest fashion, their rooms Mayfair's most luxurious, their suitors Britain's most powerful men. Their fortunes blood and sugar. 'This is a book you need to read.' Lucy Worsley Georgian heiresses are inescapable in British culture. They flutter through Jane Austen's novels and countless period dramas. Their portraits painted by Gainsborough, Zoffany, Reynolds crowd our museums while their lavish estates pepper the countryside. However, a less genteel story lurks beneath the veneer those glorious balls, dresses and dowries were funded by the exploitation of enslaved men, women and children. Following the lives of nine heiresses and tracing their tainted money from its origins in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean, Miranda Kaufmann reveals a murky world of inheritance, fortune-hunting and human exploitation. From Jane Leigh Perrot, Jane Austen's light-fingered aunt, to Elizabeth Vassall Fox, who faked her daughter's death to maintain custody during a tumultuous divorce, Heiresses traces the often scandalous lives of the women who helped build Britain's empire. Kaufmann also pieces together the lives of the people these heiresses and their families enslaved. There's Betsy Newton, who escaped from Barbados to London to confront her enslavers face-to-face. Meanwhile in Jamaica, Susanna Augier became a powerful landowner, inheriting her white father's properties. Her daughter, an eligible heiress, would marry into the British aristocracy. Enlightening, provocative and masterfully researched, Heiresses offers a vital history of enslavement in Britain and the Caribbean. *** 'A startling insight into the lives of the real ';Mrs Rochesters'. The role of women in plantation slavery, as perpetrators and victims is uncovered by a historian at the height of her powers.' Anita Anand, author of The Patient Assassin and co-host of Empire 'A perfect balance of critical humour and searing historical insight. A must-read.' Paterson Joseph, actor and author of The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho 'Vivid, shocking and compulsively readable... Miranda Kaufmann is not just a fine investigative historian she is a superb story-teller.' Alex Renton, author of Blood Legacy

A new, transformative history – in Tudor times there were Black people living and working in Britain, and they were free ‘This is history on the cutting edge of archival research, but accessibly written and alive with human details and warmth.’ David Olusoga, author of Black and British: A Forgotten History A black porter publicly whips a white Englishman in the hall of a Gloucestershire manor house. A Moroccan woman is baptised in a London church. Henry VIII dispatches a Mauritanian diver to salvage lost treasures from the Mary Rose. From long-forgotten records emerge the remarkable stories of Africans who lived free in Tudor England… They were present at some of the defining moments of the age. They were christened, married and buried by the Church. They were paid wages like any other Tudors. The untold stories of the Black Tudors, dazzlingly brought to life by Kaufmann, will transform how we see this most intriguing period of history. *** Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2018 A Book of the Year for the Evening Standard and the Observer ‘That rare thing: a book about the 16th century that said something new.’ Evening Standard, Books of the Year ‘Splendid… a cracking contribution to the field.’ Dan Jones, Sunday Times ‘Consistently fascinating, historically invaluable… the narrative is pacy... Anyone reading it will never look at Tudor England in the same light again.’ Daily Mail

A new, transformative history – in Tudor times there were Black people living and working in Britain, and they were free‘This is history on the cutting edge of archival research, but accessibly written and alive with human details and warmth.’ David Olusoga, author of Black and British: A Forgotten HistoryA black porter publicly whips a white Englishman in the hall of a Gloucestershire manor house. A Moroccan woman is baptised in a London church. Henry VIII dispatches a Mauritanian diver to salvage lost treasures from the Mary Rose. From long-forgotten records emerge the remarkable stories of Africans who lived free in Tudor England…They were present at some of the defining moments of the age. They were christened, married and buried by the Church. They were paid wages like any other Tudors. The untold stories of the Black Tudors, dazzlingly brought to life by Kaufmann, will transform how we see this most intriguing period of history.***Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2018A Book of the Year for the Evening Standard and the Observer‘That rare thing: a book about the 16th century that said something new.’ Evening Standard, Books of the Year‘Splendid… a cracking contribution to the field.’ Dan Jones, Sunday Times‘Consistently fascinating, historically invaluable… the narrative is pacy... Anyone reading it will never look at Tudor England in the same light again.’ Daily Mail