Emma Hamilton was a legendary beauty who ranks with Helen of Troy and Nell Gwynne in the public imagination. Beloved Emma traces Emma's life from her birth as the daughter of a Cheshire blacksmith, through her glittering success in Neapolitan society as the wife of Sir William Hamilton, and her famous romance with Lord Nelson, to her death as a pauper in Calais. Flora Fraser captures the charm and vivacity of this unusual woman and her use of contemporary sources and anecdotes brings the period vividly to life.