Belle: The True Story of Dido Belle
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By Paula Byrne
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1 review
The inspiration behind the powerful new film starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson, this is the story of Dido Belle, whose adoption by an aristocratic family challenged the conventions of 18th century England.
In one of the most famous portraits in the world, a pretty girl walks through the grounds of Kenwood House, a vision of aristocratic refinement. But the eye is drawn to the beautiful woman on her right. Pointing at her own cheek, she playfully acknowledges her remarkable position in eighteenth-century society. For Dido Belle was the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy captain and a slave woman, adopted by the Earl of Mansfield. As Lord Chief Justice of England he would preside over the notorious Zong case – the drowning of 142 slaves by an unscrupulous shipping company. His ruling provided the legal underpinning to the abolition of slavery in Britain. From the privileged yet unequal lives of Dido and her cousin Elizabeth, to the horrific treatment of African slaves, Paula Byrne – the bestselling author of ‘The Real Jane Austen’ – vividly narrates the story of a family that defied convention, the legal trial that exposed the cruelties of slavery and the woman who challenged notions of race at the highest rank. TweetReviews
Emma from Back on the Map Book Club Sunderland
This book concentrated on the horrific treatment of African slaves, particularly the lives and treatment of female slaves and the exploitation they faced. Those paragraphs were harrowing to read and this contrasted heavily with the life and upbringing of Dido Belle.
This book focussed on the events surrounding Dido's life and the portrait of her and her cousin showed us that inter-racial relationships occurred and were sometimes accepted.
(page 237) It was sad to read that Dido's remains are buried in an unknown place and that it was only in the 1970s and 1980s that extensive research was carried on the painting to uncover Dido's connection with Kenwood House. Though the reader only gets a snapshot of her actual life, because of the painting and the subsequent research carried out and then this book written, it makes the reader aware of life for slaves in the 1700s and how the abolition of slavery occurred in Britain.
I came to the book thinking it would be like the film- however it was much more factual and gave me a greater understanding and new knowledge of what happened in Britain relating to the slave trade.
If the painting had not been thoroughly researched would these facts about slavery be made available to a wider audience?
I do not normally read factual books as I prefer watching documentaries about factual events, but I am glad I was able to read this book as it told me more facts about an important topic. I am now going to re-watch Fake or Fortune and I would recommend this book to others.
