The Hottentot Venus

The acclaimed biography of Sarah Baartman, once a slave and later a showgirl
'A significant and timely book … Holmes has produced a laceratingly powerful story' Frances Wilson, Literary Review
'Impeccable ... In telling her extraordinary story, Holmes's fascinating book illuminates the forces which dominated her age, and resound in our own' _Sunday Telegraph_In 1810 the slave turned showgirl Sarah 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.