Belle The True Story of Dido Belle

London: William Collins. Very Good+. 2014. Reprint; First Printing. Paperback. Light shelf wear with slight cover peel, slight water staining to rear endpapers. ; First printing of Collins movie tie-in paperback edition, 2014. Nice tight copy, no names inside, possibly unread. Cover design uncredited with photos of cast members from the film starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson. ; B&W Illustrations; 304 pages; The true story of Dido Belle, whose adoption by an aristocratic family challenged the conventions of 18th century England. In a portrait by the artist David Martin, a pretty girl is seated on the terrace of Kenwood House, a vision of aristocratic refinement. But the eye is drawn to the beautiful woman on her right. Pointing at her own cheek, she playfully acknowledges her remarkable position in eighteenth-century society. For Dido Belle was the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy captain and a slave woman, adopted by the Earl of Mansfield, her great-uncle. As Lord Chief Justice of England he would preside over the notorious Zong case – the drowning of 142 slaves by an unscrupulous shipping company. His ruling provided the legal underpinning to the abolition of slavery in Britain. .