'What Rees does in this engaging book is to give us the extra historical information we need to create a richer context for Moll's story'
The Guardian 'Lively and bracing... With Rees's companionship, I finally see the point of Moll'
The Times
'Ably and entertainingly Rees pictures Moll's world of Stuart London. She traces the sources of her remarkable story and the overlaps between Defoe's life and that of his heroine. This is a readable, informative and colourful account'
Daily Express
'Rees is a lucid, intelligent guide'
Sunday Herald
Daniel Defoe's fictional heroine Moll Flanders is famous for her criminal and sexual adventures, racily portrayed in big and small screen romps as bawdy wench, fallen woman and proto-feminist trailblazer. But who was she? And what world did she really inhabit?
To answer these questions Sian Rees takes her readers on a journey of literary and historical detection, across continents, cultures and centuries. Following Moll's tumultuous life, the story moves from Jacobean England to Jamestown, Virginia; from the English Civil War to the struggles of the Powhatan Indians; and from the metropolis of London to the hamlet of Annapolis in the early eighteenth century.
Introducing us to a rogues' gallery of real-life versions of Moll, it is as fast-moving and rich in incident as Defoe's great novel.
About the Author :
Sian Rees was born and brought up in Cornwall, spending much of her childhood in boatyards and at sea. She read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford and then spent a decade travelling and living abroad. Her first book, The Floating Brothel: the extraordinary true story of the Lady Julian and its cargo of female convicts bound for Botany Bay was written after living in Melbourne, Australia, and published in 2001. It was followed by The Shadows of Elisa Lynch: how a nineteenth-century Irish courtesan became the most powerful woman in Paraguay (2003) after a stint in South America, and The Ship Thieves: the true tale of James Porter, colonial pirate (2006). Her next publication, Sweet Water and Bitter: the Ships that Stopped the Slave Trade, will be published by Chatto & Windus in February 2009. She lives in Brighton with her two small sons.
Review :
..".an eye-opening introduction to an underworld of sex and crime..."
The Sunday Times
..".wonderfully colourful..."
The Scotsman
..".what Rees does in this engaging book is to give us the extra historical information we need to create a richer context for Moll's story. "
Katherine Hughes, The Guardian
"Ably and entertainingly Rees pictures Moll's world of Stuart London. She traces the sources of her remarkable story and the overlaps between Defoe's life and that of his heroine.This is a readable, informative and colourful account."
Express
..".lively and bracing..."
Valerie Grove, The Times
"Sian Rees brings alive this fictional woman and makes her live and breathe in the teeming London of her birth. The city is a character in itself, full of thieves and vagabonds and highwaymen. For me, however, the particular fascination of this work lies in the vivid detail of what it means to have been female in the 1600s...This book raises many relevant issues such as the relationship between the state and private morality and the rights of children. Rees has written history at its most accessible: learned, informative and highly entertaining."
Catherine Dunne, Sunday Express
..".her fascinating and expertly researched new book...Rees firmly repositions Defoe's work back in its appropriate context...Rees's skill as a masterful researcher and a story teller truly shines. We are given a detailed tour of the workings and contexts of Moll's world - taken from London to Virginia, and introduced to everything from the practices of midwifery to indentured servitude...Sian Rees has suceeded in painting an almost three dimensional context for Defoe's celebrated novel. Moll Flanders is meely the peg on which she hangs a thoroughly engrossing study of 17th-century life,"
Hallie Rubenhold, BBC History Magazine
..".this vivid look at both the character and the culture that created her."
Metro
..".a lucid, intelligent guide. "
Sunday Herald
"Making clever use of the online Old Bailey records and the plethora of best-selling criminal biographies from the 17th and 18th centuries, Rees uncovers all manner of entertaining stories ... Foregrounding riveting historical fact to colour Defoe's famous fiction, Rees offers a lively 17th-century history with the misfortunate Moll Flanders as its inspiration."
History Today
"Rees writes vividly about the lives of the early colonial settlers...Rees has a magpie's eye for the details that make history sparkle. She also has the dexterity needed to turn this pick 'n' mix approach into a neat, coherent whole. The result is a wonderfully entertaining, enlightening book, which in its own way is just as much fun as the original."
Mail on Sunday
"While the popular view of Moll is a strumpet, Rees views her more as an independent woman relying on her wits in a society that despite its professed Christianity is remarkably cruel. Five stars."
Stephen Rees
"An incredibly interesting book... gives a lot of context of the time."
Georgia Grantham - Media
..".an eye-opening introduction to an underworld of sex and crime..."
The Sunday Times
..".wonderfully colourful..."
The Scotsman
..".what Rees does in this engaging book is to give us the extra historical information we need to create a richer context for Moll's story. "
Katherine Hughes, The Guardian
" Ably and entertainingly Rees pictures Moll's world of Stuart London. She traces the sources of her remarkable story and the overlaps between Defoe's life and that of his heroine.This is a readable, informative and colourful account."
Express
..".lively and bracing..."
Valerie Grove, The Times
"Sian Rees brings alive this fictional woman and makes her live and breathe in the teeming London of her birth. The city is a character in itself, full of thieves and vagabonds and highwaymen. For me, however, the particular fascination of this work lies in the vivid detail of what it means to have been female in the 1600s...This book raises many relevant issues such as the relationship between the state and private morality and the rights of children. Rees has written history at its most accessible: learned, informative and highly entertaining."
Catherine Dunne, Sunday Express
..".her fascinating and expertly researched new book...Rees firmly repositions Defoe's work back in its appropriate context...Rees's skill as a masterful researcher and a story teller truly shines. We are given a detailed tour of the workings and contexts of Moll's world - taken from London to Virginia, and introduced to everything from the practices of midwifery to indentured servitude...Sian Rees has suceeded in painting an almost three dimensional context for Defoe's celebrated novel. Moll Flanders is meely the peg on which she hangs a thoroughly engrossing study of 17th-century life,"
Hallie Rubenhold, BBC History Magazine
..".this vivid look at both the character and the culture that created her."
Metro
..".a lucid, intelligent guide. "
Sunday Herald
"Making clever use of the online Old Bailey records and the plethora of best-selling criminal biographies from the 17th and 18th centuries, Rees uncovers all manner of entertaining stories ... Foregrounding riveting historical fact to colour Defoe's famous fiction, Rees offers a lively 17th-century history with the misfortunate Moll Flanders as its inspiration."
History Today
" Rees writes vividly about the lives of the early colonial settlers...Rees has a magpie's eye for the details that make history sparkle. She also has the dexterity needed to turn this pick 'n' mix approach into a neat, coherent whole. The result is a wonderfully entertaining, enlightening book, which in its own way is just as much fun as the original."
Mail on Sunday
'What Rees does in this engaging book is to give us the extra historical information we need to create a richer context for Moll's story'
The Guardian
'Lively and bracing... With Rees's companionship, I finally see the point of Moll'
The Times
'Ably and entertainingly Rees pictures Moll's world of Stuart London. She traces the sources of her remarkable story and the overlaps between Defoe's life and that of his heroine. This is a readable, informative and colourful account'
Daily Express
'Rees is a lucid, intelligent guide'
Sunday Herald
