Rachel Holmes is the author of Eleanor Marx: A Life, The Secret Life of Dr James Barry and The Hottentot Venus: The Life and Death of Saartjie Baartman. She is co-editor of Fifty Shades of Feminism and I Call Myself A Feminist. She lives in London.

'A significant and timely book . Holmes has produced a laceratingly powerful story' Frances Wilson, Literary Review

In 1810 the slave turned showgirl Saartjie Baartman, London's most famous curiosity, became its legal cause célèbre. Famed for her exquisite physique - in particular her shapely bottom - she was stared at, stripped, pinched, painted, worshipped and ridiculed. This talented, tragic young South African woman became a symbol of exploitation, colonialism - and defiance.

In this scintillating and vividly written book Rachel Holmes traces the full arc of Baartman's extraordinary life for the first time.

Holmes' biography of this unhappy woman is gripping and meticulously researched

Impeccable ... In telling her extraordinary story, Holmes's fascinating book illuminates the forces which dominated her age, and resound in our own

A significant and timely book ... Holmes has produced a laceratingly powerful story

Musters as much factual information as possible, telling her tale with care and respect