Country Life

A venerable name revived

AS stated in the title of this richly detailed book, the reader is on a fascinating journey ‘in search of’ Jamaican-born Mary Seacole (1805–81)—‘herbalist, sutler, humanitarian and patriot’—known as ‘Mother Seacole’ to the many souls she cared for and nursed. As so little is known about her before her celebrated exploits in service to the British army during the Crimean War (1853–56), much of the book reads like a detective story: as Helen Rappaport observes, akin to ‘opening up a cold case’.

Broadly chronological, pauses in the narrative allow the author to describe the painstaking exposure of precious information, leading to vital biographical gap-filling and myth-challenging: from Seacole’s actual birth date, parentage and marriage to the true identity of her young ‘maid’ and more.

‘Much of the book reads like a detective story: akin to “opening up a cold case”’

In the many years

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