S&S scoops 'inspirational' Mary Seacole biography

Simon & Schuster is to publish In Search of Mary Seacole: The Making of a Cultural Icon by Helen Rappaport in spring 2022. 

The publisher obtained UK and Commonwealth rights to the biography from Caroline Michel at PFD. 

Deputy publishing director Ian Marshall said: "Mary Seacole has become such a familiar figure on school curriculums, but so much of what we think we know turns out to be inaccurate or has been misinterpreted. What Helen’s brilliant book shows is that Seacole’s story is more complex, more interesting and more inspirational than we realised, and I am sure it will appeal to all those who want to find out more about her remarkable story."

Rappaport has been researching Seacole—who has become an icon acknowledged for her medical work, business mind and combatting racial prejudice during the Crimean War—for 17 years.

Rappaport said: "Ever since I discovered the lost portrait of Mary Seacole in 2003 that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, I have been drawn to her warm and generous personality and intrigued by her story. After her return from Crimea in 1856 she was undoubtedly the most famous black woman in Britain, if not the Empire. Today she is a role model and national icon. How did this come about?

"Over the last 17 years I have been gathering information on her life and times, bit by bit piecing together what I know will be an intriguing, surprising and uplifting tale. I am thrilled that Simon & Schuster have got behind this project, because in its telling I will show that Mary Seacole is no plaster saint but a fully rounded human being, a woman for all of us, and for all time, whose story transcends boundaries of race, creed and colour."