Maria and the Admiral

Billington’s descriptions of the landscape are lush and evocative, and her portrait of Maria is delightfully honest * DAILY MAIL *
Intense and moving * THE LADY *
There is an admirable economy to Billington’s writing. It moves through death, earthquakes and childbirth with something of the brisk, matter-of-fact qualities of Defoe * INDEPENDENT *
It’s as much a record of 19th-century Chile as a drama, and Rachel Billington gives a real sense of the beauty and atmosphere of Valparaiso and its surroundings. … Her consciousness of the limitations of romantic love and her old-fashioned acceptance of emotional and physical pain make Rachel Billington’s Maria touching and dashing in equal measure * SPECTATOR *
Maria Graham was an author who broke through the conventions of her time … it was as a widow in Valparaiso, she saw the flamboyant Admiral Lord Cochrane sail into the harbour, fresh from leading the Chilean fleet to victory over the Spanish. Rachel Billington imagines their intense relationship in this engrossing novel * CHOICE *
Despite the beauty of the setting - the ruby mountains, the emerald ocean - Billington keeps a rein on the romance and while, at times, the readers longs for a swooning love story, one suspects that Billington’s clearer-eyed version would have been infinitely more to Graham’s own tastes * THE LADY *
Rachel Billington discovered Maria’s Chilean journals in the London Library and, using Maria’s own words, in a voice so witty and intimate, so utterly human, she makes an already gripping story even more so because of the powerful presence of Maria whispering in our ears. A wonderful story and a terrific way of discovering more about a previously unknown corner of history * GOOD BOOK GUIDE *
Billington’s descriptions of the landscape are lush and evocative, and her portrait of Maria is delightfully honest * DAILY MAIL *
[An] intense and moving novel * THE LADY *
Despite the beauty of the setting - the ruby mountains, the emerald ocean - Billington keeps a rein on the romance and while, at times, the readers longs for a swooning love story, one suspects that Billington’s clearer-eyed version would have been infinitely more to Graham’s own tastes * THE LADY *
Maria Graham was an author who broke through the conventions of her time … it was as a widow in Valparaiso, she saw the flamboyant Admiral Lord Cochrane sail into the harbour, fresh from leading the Chilean fleet to victory over the Spanish. Rachel Billington imagines their intense relationship in this engrossing novel * CHOICE MAGAZINE *
It’s as much a record of 19th-century Chile as a drama, and Rachel Billington gives a real sense of the beauty and atmosphere of Valparaiso and its surroundings. … Her consciousness of the limitations of romantic love and her old-fashioned acceptance of emotional and physical pain make Rachel Billington’s Maria touching and dashing in equal measure * THE SPECTATOR *
There is an admirable economy to Billington’s writing. It moves through death, earthquakes and childbirth with something of the brisk, matter-of-fact qualities of Defoe * INDEPENDENT *
Rachel Billington discovered Maria’s Chilean journals in the London Library and, using Maria’s own words, in a voice so witty and intimate, so utterly human, she makes an already gripping story even more so because of the powerful presence of Maria whispering in our ears. A wonderful story and a terrific way of discovering more about a previously unknown corner of history * GOOD BOOK GUIDE *

Rachel Billington has published twenty novels and nine books for children, as well as several non-fiction works. She is also a regular journalist, feature writer and reviewer. She is co-editor of Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners and a Vice-President of English PEN. She has four children and five grandchildren and lives in London and Dorset.

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