[A] skillful and highly entertaining biography.

[An] empathetic perspective, combined with rigorous scholarship, to reveal Chudleigh in her full glory, with the last dozen years of her life in Russia, Estonia and France being perhaps the most fascinating.

Ostler’s book is such a rollicking read that it would be a shame to give away the outcome of the trial or the end of the story. She tells Elizabeth’s story with admirable style and gusto, and clearly finds her heroine irresistible..

This explosive trial lies at the heart of Catherine Ostler’s new biography of Chudleigh, but we do not arrive at this pivotal moment until two thirds of the way through the book. The build-up is over 250 pages, but if you thrill to the minutiae of 18th-century aristocratic life then you’re in for a treat. Ostler’s CV includes stints as editor of both ES magazine and Tatler, so there’s not a peerage or princely title for which she is not prepared to go the full Debrett’s. Her footnotes are a joy in themselves.

This is a scintillating story superbly told by Catherine Ostler.

Catherine Ostler draws a vivid portrait of this remarkable woman.

[A] brisk retelling.

Well written and researched.

This scrupulously documented biography packs in period details, historical context, and lots of juicy gossip.

While Chudleigh’s story has the makings of a very good period-piece dramedy, it is less successful as a deeply researched historical biography. In addition to recounting Chudleigh’s many escapades, Ostler attempts to find the origin of the duchess’s behavior and motivations; she superficially links them to an unhappy childhood, an ill-defined personality disorder, celebrity, and early feminism in a patriarchal misogynist society. Readers will need a great deal of tolerance to wade through the book’s anecdotes of the rich behaving badly.

Entertaining.

Intriguing.