Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (1957) is the autobiography of Jamaican woman whose fame rivalled Florence Nightingale’s during the Crimean War. Seacole travelled widely before eventually arriving in London, where her offer to volunteer as a nurse in the war was met with racism and refusal. Undaunted, Seacole set out independently to Crimea where she acted as doctor and ‘mother’ to wounded soldiers while running her business, the ‘British Hotel’. A Witness to major battles, she gives vivid accounts of how she coped with disease, bombardment and other hardships at the Crimean battlefront. Told with energy, warmth and humour, her remarkable life story is a key work of nineteenth-century literature that provides significant insights into the history of race politics.