Book Blurb:
George Matcham, dubbed the most unsettled man alive,
was born in East India Company controlled Bombay and undertook three epic overland treks between Asia and England before marrying the favourite sister of the not yet famous Horatio Nelson. Intimate details about George's life have been preserved because of his close relationship with Nelson and his famous paramour Emma Hamilton, whose rises and falls he observed first-hand.
Packed with period press clippings and eyewitness accounts, A Most Unsettled Man provides an unprecedented glimpse into the private life of a modest 18th century English gentleman, as well retelling the enduring love story of Nelson and Emma from an entirely new perspective.
*****
Lily Style is the direct descendant of famed lovers Admiral Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton and also Nelson's brother-in-law, George Matcham (because their grandchildren married).
Lily is the founder of Emma Hamilton Society and writes regularly for Nelson-related publications. She is also a keen genealogist with an interest in piecing together real human stories lying behind dry facts. One of these stories is of her 4th great-grandfather, George Matcham, whose story she's traced from his mid eighteenth century birth in East India Company controlled Bombay through to his intimate involvement with Nelson and Emma's rise and fall.
Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/UwYxd6z
Author Bio:
Lily Style is the direct descendant of famed lovers Admiral Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton. A keen genealogist, her interest is in piecing together the real human stories lying behind dry facts. She writes regularly for Nelson-related publications. Horatia's Secret is her first historical novel.
Editorial Review:
The premise of “A Most Unsettled Man” by Lily Style is intriguing. This book is billed as a non-fiction biography of George Matcham. Matcham was an English civil servant, working for the East India Company, and (by the way) the brother-in-law of Horatio Nelson. The author is a direct descendant of each man, due to a subsequent marriage between a grandchild of each. That connection has led to the writing of a fascinating tale, incorporating the individual, family and social history of the times. Bombay (now Mumbai), India in the mid-1700s is both exotic and dangerous, with the stark reality of illness, death, and colonization laid bare. The terrible toll wreacked by tropical disease is illustrated by the death of Matcham’s two baby siblings, leaving his parents bereft and confronted by the difficult decision to send their only surviving child to England - perceived as a safer environment. That journey alone was a six month voyage.
Matcham does eventually return to India (and to England), through the demands of his work, his passion for travel to far-flung lands, and then eventually finding time to meet a wife. In the 1780s this process involved (a) a new suit and (b) commissioning a “flattering portrait” of oneself. Though much has changed in the intervening 250 years, readers may also realize that elements of human nature have stayed the same, including Matcham’s possible playing down of his interest in a potential match because he did not want to appear too keen! He subsequently met Kitty Nelson, whose surname may be familiar to readers in the context of these times. Keenness was then likely confessed to by both, as the sweethearts married after a whirlwind two months.
At that point the reader sees Matcham as a family man, and also further glimpses of his personality. One of the most difficult aspects of writing historical fiction is conveying humor from the past, which may or may not survive the journey to modern times. Styles is adept at creating a sense of Matcham’s character, and also his jokes with friends and family. She also touches on the dynamics involved with having a “famous” family member, and discusses the extensive and often contradictory histories published in relation to Horatio Nelson, Emma Hamilton, and their arrangements.
“George, who’d grown into a “handsome, enterprising, wellspoken man”, quickly progressed upwards through the Company’s ranks. In 1771, a year after graduating from his East End tutor, he was listed as a writer living at home. How cosy it would have been to be back in Bombay, and in his family’s bungalow, with his father, now the harbour master, present every night. The glass-like chunam floors brightened with the exotic fabrics his mother’s aesthetic, eagle-eye had swooped into their nest.”
Extensive historical research, facts and background is included in the narrative. This means that the narrative is often a social, rather than a personal, history. Styles has attempted to reconstruct or expand on details of Matcham’s life with references to the politics, fashions, housing and customs of the times, but quite understandably there are some areas where the exact truth is unknown. The perils of interpreting, relying on, and synchronizing details of family history from so long ago are known to all, and Styles has included appendices and analysis where the facts do not match or require discussion. Some readers may find there is too much focus on recounting social history and context, and that Matcham’s story as an individual becomes lost at certain stages within the book. Others may prefer the level of background included, as, after all, the book is a non-fiction work rather than a novel. The opening pages referencing Bombay are particularly vividly written.
“Ever-restless, George threw himself into reworking the rectory’s garden, deeming it in need of “vast landscape gardening improvements.” His enthusiastic clearing, planting, and aquatic engineering of “the stream running bright and swiftly by the Rectory grounds”, prompted Edmund Nelson to quip, “Myself and Peter as under Artists in Improvements, must have another lesson from ‘Capability M’ before we can make a finish.” [466] This being a play on the name of the famous landscape gardener, Capability Brown, with “M” signifying Matcham.”
While the focus remains on Matcham, “A Most Unsettled Man” necessarily refers to some (one!) of England’s most iconic naval battles. The references to Horatio Nelson, in the context of him as a person and his family life and relationships, are indisputably moving.
“George and Kitty couldn’t mourn Horace as other beloved brothers were mourned. The State and Admiralty curated every detail of how Lord Nelson was to be mourned, which was as a saint in all but name (Protestant England canonised no one). Emma was permitted nowhere near Horace's body, whilst George, Kitty and the rest of their family were allowed to view him with the thousands of others who flocked to sob for the nation's fallen hero. Fanny was resurrected as Lady Nelson, the sanctified widow upon whom honours were bestowed, but William Nelson took the lion's share of largess and was exceedingly happy to do so.”
“A Most Unsettled Man” by Lily Style is a fascinating non-fiction account of the life of George Matcham, including his family life, his travel, his career and his famous family connections. The variety of Matcham’s life and his vividly depicted personality mean he is the perfect foil to the momentous nation-shaping events also included in the narrative, and the author’s family connection gives the book a unique perspective.
*****
“A Most Unsettled Man” by Lily Style receives 4.5 stars from The Historical Fiction Company
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