Lady Charlotte Guest (1812-1895) was a remarkable woman, who became an industrialist at a time when women were more often confined to the home than allowed a role in business. At age 21 she married ironmaster John Guest and moved with him to South Wales where he ran the Dowlais Ironworks, at that time the largest iron plant in the world. She immersed herself not only in Welsh life, culture and language, but also in the business, carrying it on after her husband’s death. This is a straightforward well-researched biography tracing Lady Charlotte’s life and giving a sympathetic insight into her thoughts and ambitions. Well worth reading to discover a somewhat different aspect of Victorian womanhood.

Lady Charlotte by Victoria Owens is a very warm and exciting and interesting and learning story! I don't think I have read any of her stories but I will look for more if they are along the lines of her style of writing. You can tell much research went into this story about not only the time period but also the history of the country,Wales. I learned so much not only of the customs of Wales but the time period,which was the Victorian age. You learn of Charlotte's life,her way of thinking and what she believed and why she did some of the things she did in her life. Following Charlotte's story you will see why this is a fantastic story and you will find out who this guest is! Not telling you, then you won't read this well written historical story of a remarkable woman and her life and decisions she made! Received this from Net Gallery and so glad I was able to read and review!

I received Lady Charlotte Gust as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

As the wife of Welsh industrialist John Guest, Lady Charlotte Guest bore nine children and in many ways fulfilled many of the traditional duties of wealthy Victorian wives--namely, supporting her husband's interests and being the face of his household. But in many ways, she broke through many of the barriers arranged against women of the mid-19th century, becoming a true partner in her husband's business interests, a scholar of Welsh language and literature, and maintaining and professing strong political opinions. Later in life, after her husband's death, she again spurned tradition by finding love with her son's tutor.

I'd never heard of Charlotte before reading this book and found her an interesting figure, even if I didn't always agree with her political views and actions. I admired her and her husband John's partnership, which was unique for the time, and her ability to make a social, economic, and political impact alongside her more traditional roles as mother and head of household . She embodied the phrase "having it all" about as well as any woman I've ever seen. My one major critique is that the book focuses mainly on her marriage to John Guest and wraps up quickly following her marriage to Charles Schreiber. I would have liked to know more about the dynamics of their relationship given how different it was from her and John's, and how that second marriage affected her later life, as it felt like we were only getting half the story.

Lady Charlotte Guest is the kind of woman we need to be celebrating- and highlighting for what 19th century women could do when given the chance. She married iron master John Guest and discovered not only the beauty of Wales but also her innate talent for business. Extremely intelligent, Charlotte had a true gift for languages and learned Welsh after her marriage so that she could help preserve Welsh culture, which included translating and publishing a famous version of the "Mabinogion". The Guests were among the industrialists who looked towards the welfare of their workers, building schools and towns to house them, and Charlotte herself fought long and hard to get clean water to the town to prevent cholera epidemics. Charlotte fought to be treated as an intelligent equal by her husband and her fellow iron masters after taking over the business on her husband's death, My only complaint with the book was that it seemed to end rather abruptly after Charlotte's second marriage. An epilogue or conclusion of some kind giving a brief summary of the rest of her life after marrying and stepping down from running the iron company would have been nice.

This new book by Victoria Owens is carefully researched and includes wonderful details, doing a brilliant job of following the sources available to create a vivid picture of not only Charlotte herself, but also the industrial world she was a part of developing.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Lady Charlotte Guest was a woman who would be supremely interesting to meet and converse with! Born poor in 1812 in Lincolnshire, she was always enterprising and this characteristic lasted throughout her life. Thankfully, her prolific writing works (formally as author and translator and informally in personal journals) survived as they provide outstanding historical facts and her true feelings as a wife, mother, industrialist, friend, mentor and humanitarian. We get more than just a glimpse in this remarkable book.

She married John Guest, an ironmaster and a leading industrialist. An intelligent and engaged woman, she took it upon herself to research iron and manufacturing and then took an active role in furthering the company (including railway) and became John's secretary.

She had ten children and survived an explosion, cholera outbreaks and strike threats. Schools opened for workers' children and she helped educate. She was compassionate and promoted fairness. She helped John in his political career.

Loved the exhaustive research into Lady Charlotte's life. I'm so happy to have learned about her! This book is fascinating, gripping and thorough, so much so that I've been spending my morning reading more about her. The photographs are very interesting, too.

Those interested in the industrial revolution, 19th century British history and/or women in history should include this book in their repertoire.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for an ARC of this superlative book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Lady Charlotte Guest by Victoria Owens is a very well-written biography of an impressive woman. The daughter of the Earl of Lindsey, Charlotte fell in love with John Guest, senior partner in a Welsh ironworks, when she was twenty-one and they married within three months of first meeting. Charlotte had already learnt Latin, Greek, French and Italian from her brother’s tutor and had taught herself Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi. She proceeded to learn Welsh after her marriage.

John’s nephew asked her to translate a technical book about hot-air blasting from French. Whilst she didn’t enjoy some aspects of the translation, it awoke an interest in the iron industry and she started to act as John’s secretary, thus also gaining a deep understanding of the business too.

As I mentioned above, this is a very well-written book. Rather than starting, as most biographies do, tracing the family from grandparents or earlier and meandering gently until we reach the birth of the main subject, the first chapter starts with Charlotte and John’s arrival in Dowlais after their wedding. The biography doesn’t seek to document every single thing the research has uncovered, regardless of relevance or interest (although there are a couple of paragraphs whose inclusion I would question, but only a couple). It moves along at pace and consistently referring to the couple as Charlotte and John brings us closer to them as real people.

However, although I really enjoyed the style of the writing, I was disappointed with the content – or, more accurately, the missing content. The book is subtitled “The exceptional life of a female industrialist” and it concentrates upon Charlotte’s involvement with the Dowlais ironworks and village. Once her close involvement with Dowlais ceased, a few years after John’s death, the book ends. We’re not even told when she died. Whilst I accept that Owens is primarily interested in Charlotte’s Dowlais life, I would like to read more about her involvement in Canford – especially as I live half a mile from the place! Also, we’re told she and her second husband started a printing press, but it’s given half a sentence. Similarly, her collecting activity (her ceramics went to the V&A and her fans and cards went to the British Museum) gets 2-3 sentences.

Owens mentions both the 1989 biography by Revel Guest and Angela John and the 1950 edition of Charlotte’s journal but doesn’t explain why she feels the need to add this partial biography to the canon. But I’m glad she has.

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