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Geraldine Roberts
Represented By: Sallyanne Sweeney
Geraldine Roberts is an author and historian with a focus on the glitzy Regency era. She writes about inspirational people, trawling through letters and diaries to uncover remarkable true stories from the past.
Her first book, The Angel and The Cad, is published by Macmillan. It was The Times Book of the Week and earned glowing reviews in the Observer, Daily Mirror, Country Life and BBC History Magazine. It tells the true story of a high society scandal. Catherine was the richest heiress in Regency Britain – her husband was a notorious libertine. The celebrity couple kept the nation enthralled as the shocking twists of their marriage played out in the press. It culminated in a landmark court case with far reaching repercussions.
Geraldine’s new book, The Rebel and The Peacemaker, will be published worldwide by Canelo in June 2026. Charles and Mary Bagot caused such a scandal in Regency high society, they were banished to the mudflows of Washington City, to serve penance as British Ambassadors to America. Against all odds, they emerged as influencers on the world stage, forever changing the art of diplomacy.
Geraldine lives in East London and has a Master’s Degree in History (with distinction) from Queen Mary University of London, plus a Foundation in Performing Arts from The City Literature Institute (City Lit). She has written several short plays for the Wanstead Fringe and is a member of a theatre improvisation group that meets once a week to create scenes and sketches.
For more, visit www.geraldineroberts.com .
Represented By: Sallyanne Sweeney
Geraldine Roberts is an author and historian with a focus on the glitzy Regency era. She writes about inspirational people, trawling through letters and diaries to uncover remarkable true stories from the past.
Her first book, The Angel and The Cad, is published by Macmillan. It was The Times Book of the Week and earned glowing reviews in the Observer, Daily Mirror, Country Life and BBC History Magazine. It tells the true story of a high society scandal. Catherine was the richest heiress in Regency Britain – her husband was a notorious libertine. The celebrity couple kept the nation enthralled as the shocking twists of their marriage played out in the press. It culminated in a landmark court case with far reaching repercussions.
Geraldine’s new book, The Rebel and The Peacemaker, will be published worldwide by Canelo in June 2026. Charles and Mary Bagot caused such a scandal in Regency high society, they were banished to the mudflows of Washington City, to serve penance as British Ambassadors to America. Against all odds, they emerged as influencers on the world stage, forever changing the art of diplomacy.
Geraldine lives in East London and has a Master’s Degree in History (with distinction) from Queen Mary University of London, plus a Foundation in Performing Arts from The City Literature Institute (City Lit). She has written several short plays for the Wanstead Fringe and is a member of a theatre improvisation group that meets once a week to create scenes and sketches.
For more, visit www.geraldineroberts.com .
Published Works
Author: Geraldine Roberts
Genres: Subject-Led Non Fiction
At the age of sixteen, Catherine Tylney Long became the wealthiest heiress in England, and the public found their ‘angel’.
Witty, wealthy and beautiful, Catherine was the most eligible of young ladies and was courted by royalty but, ignoring the warnings of her closest confidantes, she married for love. Her choice of husband was the charming but feckless dandy William Wellesley Pole, nephew of the Duke of Wellington.
The pair excited the public’s interest on an unprecedented scale with gossip columns reporting every detail of their magnificent home in Wanstead, where they hosted glittering royal fetes, dinners and parties. But their happiness was short-lived; just a decade later William had frittered away Catherine’s inheritance and the couple were forced to flee into exile. As they travelled across Europe, they became embroiled in a series of scandals that shocked the public and culminated in a landmark court case.
Meticulously researched and rich with dazzling detail, The Angel and the Cad is a gripping and tragic tale of love and drama that twists and turns until the final page.
“Geraldine Roberts elegantly combines the skills of an archival historian, immersed in original documents, with those of a talented detective sleuth, painstakingly following the trail of hints and clues to produce a compelling and utterly believable story from the past.”
- Professor Lisa Jardine CBE“This is a very enticingly written and well researched account with some interesting revelations... Riveting stuff.”
- Writing Times
“Roberts’ powerful and moving evocation of a dark, desperate chapter in the history of early 19th century high society is packed with the kind of enthralling and intricate personal detail that brings to vivid life a sense of both time and place.”
- The Blackpool Gazette
“This is a vividly written look at a marriage that began in hope and ended in almost Shakespearean tragedy, where human folly destroyed love and brought ruin and misery to innocent and guilty alike. It is a compelling and at the same time scholarly work, which tells for the first time the story of a remarkable woman who fought against her world and its constraints for the sake, and the future, of her children.”
- Janet Mullin, H-Net Reviews
Author: Geraldine Roberts
Genres: Subject-Led Non Fiction
A relationship takes work, compromise and trust in one another. But in order to make it a special relationship, a little more diplomacy may be required…
When it came to Charles and Mary Bagot, the gossips of Regency England had more than their fill. The marriage, initially the toast of high society, was one marked with scandal and adultery. And when rumours of a particularly salacious affair broke through London, the couple were banished to the New World.
Having sailed across the ocean, Charles and Mary settled into their new home among the mudflows of Washington. It was here that they would serve their penance as the first British Ambassadors to America, at a pivotal moment in the new nation's history.
But against the odds and in spite of their misfortune, the Bagots would emerge as the leading diplomats of their day. Their innate gift for politics, culture and social affairs was a tonic to the Anglo-American tensions and would lay the groundwork for modern global diplomacy. Their trailblazing work, first in the United States and then later in Russia and Canada that would forever change the power dynamics on the world stage.
Meticulously researched, The Rebel and The Peacemaker is the untold story of romance, scandal and the art of diplomacy.