After reading the Amazon.com reviews I was eagerly anticipating this book about Lady Emma Hamilton, a common born woman who rose to fame both for her beauty and for her affair with Admiral Lord Nelson. Born Amy Lyon in 1765, by seventeen years of age she was already well-known in London society as the mistress of several men and as the “Goddess of Health” for a quack Scottish doctor named James Graham. Eventually she moved to Italy where she became the toast of society and married the English Lord Hamilton, and it was during this period of her life that Lady Hamilton met Admiral Lord Nelson. Altogether Lady Hamilton’s life is captivating and “Too Great a Lady” captures some of that, especially during the first half of the book where we learn about Emma’s early years in a brothel and as a kept woman. However, the second half of the book loses much of Emma’s voice and reads more like a history book than a novel. Significant portions of each chapter are composed of excerpts from Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson’s letters, and though we still learn about her life, for the most part she recounts Nelson’s military history and current missions. I felt like her story took a backseat while Nelson’s military prowess came to the front, and while I don’t dispute Nelson’s well-deserved renown I was more interested in Emma’s thoughts and feelings. The old adage of “show don’t tell” would have improved the story significantly in this area, transforming Emma’s social gatherings from something akin to “went we to a dance” to an entire world of costume, food and conversation. Finally, Emma’s inconsistent dialect drove me up the wall. The author goes to great lengths to convince the reader that Emma was so proud of her Cheshire accent that she refused to get rid of it, despite having near native pronunciation in languages such as Italian and French. Nevertheless, Emma’s dialogue is incredibly inconsistent. For instance, on page 360 Emma says “Mam, Emma Carew has just arrived. Tell me, and tell me true: did you plan this?” then some 8 lines down Emma suddenly sounds like this “Only I ‘ope I never ‘ave to answer too many questions. My ‘eart won’t be able to stand up to it, y’nau?” In the first example Emma sounds like a well-spoken ‘lady,’ capable of pronouncing the letter H and all. In the second example, she has reverted to her Cheshire accent, dropping all the H’s and even becoming unable to say “you know” correctly. I realize I’m being tremendously picky here, and I have no problem with accents - but if a character is going to have a heavy accent they should have it throughout!