Helen Rappaport Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Writer and historian Dr Helen Rappaport talks about the almost 20 years of research that went into her new book about the most famous Black celebrity of the Victorian era Mary Seacole.

Rappaport discovered and bought in 2003 an 1869 portrait of Seacole. The portrait, which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, sparked Rappaport’s research into the nurse known as Mother Seacole. Seacole was raised in Jamaica and came to England in the 1850s. She was turned down as a volunteer for the Crimean War but then financed her own expedition to Balaclava. She was largely forgotten after her death, but her memory has been revived recently. A statue of her now stands outside St Thomas’s Hospital in London.

Rappaport is a bestselling author who specialises in writing about the period 1837-1918. Her previous books include The Romanovs, Russia and Revolution and Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their Times.