Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Wedlock

  • How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match
  • By: Wendy Moore
  • Narrated by: Rachel Atkins
  • Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (55 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Wedlock

By: Wendy Moore
Narrated by: Rachel Atkins
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Wedlock is the remarkable story of the Countess of Strathmore and her marriage to Andrew Robinson Stoney.

Mary Eleanor Bowes was one of Britain's richest young heiresses. She married the Count of Strathmore, who died young, and, pregnant with her lover's child, Mary became engaged to George Gray. Then in swooped Andrew Robinson Stoney. Mary was bowled over and married him within the week.

But nothing was as it seemed. Stoney was broke and his pursuit of the wealthy Countess a calculated ploy. Once married to Mary, he embarked on years of ill treatment, seizing her lands, beating her, terrorising servants, introducing prostitutes to the family home, and kidnapping his own sister.

But finally, after many years, a servant helped Mary to escape. She began a high-profile divorce case that was the scandal of the day and was successful. But then Andrew kidnapped her and undertook a weeklong rampage of terror and cruelty until the law finally caught up with him.

©2009 Wendy Moore (P)2015 Orion Publishing Group
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Great and Horrible News cover art
The Duchess cover art
Anne Boleyn cover art
Marie-Antoinette, Daughter of the Caesars cover art
The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey cover art
Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter cover art
Eliza Hamilton cover art
Lady Bette and the Murder of Mr Thynn cover art
The Favourite cover art
Bertie: A Life of Edward VII cover art
Mary Boleyn cover art
Queen Victoria's Granddaughters: 1860-1918 cover art
The Six Wives of Henry VIII cover art
The Turbulent Crown cover art

What listeners say about Wedlock

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    43
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    38
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping

This book is gripping. It takes a little while to get to know all the different people within the tangled web of lives but once you do it is gripping and shocking. To the point were if this was a novel you would think the author had gone too far. The things that happened to Lady Strathmore are horrendous. I loved listening to this book. It has given me a renewed interest in this period of history. Well worse a listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Highly recommended

Fascinating and tragic tale. Engagingly written and a very good reading. I'll be looking out for further work by both Wendy Moore and Rachel Atkins.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow! Brilliant

Stranger than fiction - an incredible story, very well written with many interesting historical facts loosely relating to the main plot, which enhanced the story. Flawless narration kept me riveted (with the exception of her pronunciation of "Scotland"!)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it

Brilliant book - slightly dodgey Irish accent but an impassioned reading - so many parallels to today's world

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

As gripping as it is shocking, this is one of Wendy Moore’s best works…

Whilst Andrew Robinson Stoney must undoubtedly rank as one of Georgian Britain’s most evil characters; a vicious, sadistic sociopath - reading between the lines one gets the impression that the heroine of this book; the Countess of Strathmore herself, may not have been an entirely innocent party. The insights we get into her behaviour in her younger days, prior to her marriage to Mr Stoney, suggests a woman who certainly took pleasure in encouraging as much male attention as she could get. Toying with, and deliberately breaking, a good few male hearts. But be this as it may, it does nothing to excuse her appalling and life-changing later treatment at the hands of her demonic and relentless second husband.
Rachel Atkins’s calming narration is wonderful and brings a soothing quality to what is a genuinely gripping, and at times truly harrowing and horrific account of historical abuse, cruelty and domestic violence of the worst kind.
‘Wedlock’ moves with a riveting pace and in my view is one of Wendy Moore’s best works.
True monsters may walk among us, hiding in plain sight. This is certainly a story of one of them.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I am so glad Mary has been given a voice

Very well written and performed I would highly recommend this audiobook just I am sorry someone actually experienced such horrors for so long

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Astonishing

I liked everything and am glad that I did not live in Georgian England. Harrowing but enjoyable listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Highly recommended!

Any additional comments?

I listened to this book virtually beginning to end almost from the time I downloaded it. I found the story utterly compelling, superbly written and well narrated. I would certainly be interested in reading/listening to more works from Wendy Moore, or indeed hearing further narration from Rachel Atkins. On the whole a very well deserved 5-stars!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

You'd think it was fiction if you didn't know it to be true.

Wow! The countess of Strathmoore certainly had an interesting life. She could be a poster child for the notion that money doesn't alway bring happiness. As great listen for any social / aristocratic / royal history buff!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

‘wee bit performance-editing would make a difference

‘quite a few mis-reading booboos in this (‘her grief was exasperated by his conduct’); these and other v basic editing bits & bobs do impact on the reading. I wouldnt recommend per the narration.




Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!