Pretty Young Rebel: The Life of Flora Macdonald

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The year is 1746. The Jacobite rebellion has failed catastrophically and Scotland is reeling in the devastating aftermath of the battle of Culloden. Far to the west, on an island in the Outer Hebrides, twenty-four-year-old Flora Macdonald is woken in the dead of night by a messenger with urgent intelligence. Bonnie Prince Charlie is outside, begging for her help. With Flora's assistance, the Stuart prince is disguised as an Irish maid and smuggled to the Isle of Skye, evading government troops. Floras bravery and determination will see her immortalised in ballads and proclaimed a Scottish heroine. But her efforts also result in her capture and detention in London. Released the following year and returning to Skye, Flora goes on to marry and emigrate to North Carolina, only then to be caught up in the American Revolutionary War. In Pretty Young Rebel, award-winning biographer Flora Fraser tells the remarkable story of Flora Macdonald. It is a tale of adventure and daring, wit and charm, struggle and survival, and of a woman who showed extraordinary courage in the face of great danger.

Reviews

Praise for George & Martha Washington: Tells the story of a couple, a family and country with sympathy and huge skill ... Fraser is a respectful biographer, scholarly, unshowy and unsensational * Sunday Telegraph *
Scrupulously researched ... Fraser paints a wonderfully detailed picture of American family life at the end of the pioneering colonial period ... Fraser makes a strong case -- Kathryn Hughes * Mail on Sunday *
An intimate portrait of America's original power couple ... Impeccably researched and entertaining * The Lady *
Elegant ... Fraser mines the sources available to her to reveal the depth of her subjects' attachment to one another * Literary Review *
Flora Fraser has provided an insightful portrait in elegant prose with a dash of wit. The book is based on a mastery of the original sources and brings to life, with much imagination, a wonderful marriage in a period of revolution and war. It is written with a light touch, but is a serious account in every respect. This is a book worthy of its subject -- Robert Middlekauf
Vivid and detailed ... Carefully researched and clearly argued * The Oldie *

Author Bio

Flora Fraser is the author of Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma Hamilton, The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline, Princesses: The Daughters of George III, Venus of Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte and George & Martha Washington: A Revolutionary Marriage, which won the 2016 George Washington Prize. Flora was named after the Scottish heroine Flora Macdonald, whose story she tells in Pretty Young Rebel. Flora Fraser lives in London.