‘ . . . one of the most remarkable women in Great Britain . . . ’ (Western Mail)
‘Dillwyn's was a fascinating life . . . ‘ (Victorian Studies)
‘ . . . a thoroughly readable and entertaining account of a quite remarkable Victorian gentlewoman . . . ‘ (Welsh History Review)
The strangerthanfiction story of a brave woman who defied Victorian convention to turn disaster into triumph and blazed a trail that few would have had the courage and determination to follow. When her father died in 1892 the security of the world she had known suddenly collapsed and she found herself the legatee of a family business on the verge of bankruptcy. The catastrophe proved to be the key to a new and totally unexpected career as a minor industrialist. But this is neither a business history nor a feminist biography. The author contrasts the superficial reputation which Amy Dillwyn acquired as a cigarsmoking eccentric and the more significant and moving revelation of the real woman behind the stereotype.