Author Talk: The Duke - Sue Williams

Sue Williams talks about her new book based on her own family's legend that she is descended from Mary Ann and the Duke of Wellington.

From the bestselling author of Elizabeth & Elizabeth and The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress, comes a remarkable work of historical fiction based on the author's own family history.

Join Sue Williams at the Maritime Museum as she talks about her new book involving the Duke of Wellington.

She is a young maid in a stately home; he is a dashing British army officer trapped in an unhappy marriage. The pair strike up a close friendship and, just as he's departing for war, they surrender to their passion.

Years later, he returns triumphant from defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, to reunite not only with his wife and their two sons, but also with the maid Mary Ann and their illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth. They all have to find a way through the tangle of affairs and betrayals, especially now he's hailed as the hero of the free world with a new title: the Duke of Wellington.

Two hundred years on, in Australia, a woman meets with her long-lost father and is told the family legend that they're descendants of a maid who worked for the Iron Duke. She sets out to prove once and for all whether or not this story is true, and what she discovers shocks everyone.

About the Author

Sue Williams

Her other historical novels, Elizabeth & Elizabeth, about Elizabeth Macquarie and Elizabeth Macarthur; That Bligh Girl, featuring Mary Bligh and her father, the notorious mutiny survivor and governor William Bligh; and The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress, about Philip Gidley King and his tangled love affairs, have all proved bestsellers.

Sue is also an award-winning journalist, travel writer and bestselling author of non-fiction.

Copies of the books will be available for purchase and be signed by the author.

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