Sue Williams: The Duke's Secret

Next date: Saturday, 07 March 2026 | 02:00 PM to 03:30 PM

The Friends of Kiama Library invite you to a talk with popular historical fiction author Sue Williams.

From the bestselling author of Elizabeth & Elizabeth and The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress, comes a remarkable work of historical fiction based on the author's own family history. The Duke’s Secret blends her established skills as a journalist and researcher with her historical fiction writing as she takes us on a journey to the stately homes of England in search of the truth behind a genuine family legend.

The story is that her father is descended from a liaison between the Duke of Wellington, conqueror of Napoleon, and a maid in his household. The historical facts are undeniable, the fiction becomes more real with every page as the irrefutable evidence builds up.

$8 Friends members / $10 guests (includes afternoon tea). Everyone welcome.

Books available for purchase and signing.

Tickets are available online, at the library, or call 02 4233 1133.

The Duke's Secret

'Delivers the perfect blend of fact, fiction and mystery … a rollicking good story' - Kyra Geddes, bestselling author of The Story Thief

'A masterful storyteller, Williams brings history to life. Engaging characters and an exciting plot make this historical fiction at its best.' - Belinda Alexandra, bestselling author of The Masterpiece

She is a young maid in a stately home; he is a dashing British army officer trapped in an unhappy marriage. The pair strike up a close friendship and, just as he's departing for war, they surrender to their passion.

Years later, he returns triumphant from defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, to reunite not only with his wife and their two sons, but also with the maid Mary Ann and their illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth. They all have to find a way through the tangle of affairs and betrayals, especially now he's hailed as the hero of the free world with a new title: the Duke of Wellington.

Two hundred years on, in Australia, a woman meets with her long-lost father and is told the family legend that they're descendants of a maid who worked for the Iron Duke. She sets out to prove once and for all whether or not this story is true, and what she discovers shocks everyone.

Sue Williams

Sue Williams is a best-selling author and an award-winning journalist and travel writer. She’s been writing all her life and is passionate about telling people’s stories in the most compelling way she can, bringing their worlds, and their words, vividly home to readers.

Sue is a masterful writer of historical fiction, praised for both her meticulous research and her empathic treatment of characters, particularly women, brought back from the shadowy reaches of the past into the spotlight. Her Australian series, Elizabeth & Elizabeth, about the Elizabeths Macquarie and Macarthur, That Bligh Girl about Mary Bligh the daughter of notorious governor and mutiny survivor William Bligh, and in 2025, The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress about the tangled love life of Philip Gidley King, have all proved best sellers.

She’s also written a huge swathe of non-fiction books, from biography to true crime, from travel to a number of books about the Outback. At the same time, she continues her career as a newspaper and magazine journalist, and travels widely to report on life in some of the farthest-flung corners of the earth.

Originally from England, but now calling Australia home, she lives in Sydney with her partner, crime novelist James Dunbar otherwise known as Jimmy Thomson, and their cats, River and Trotsky, who remain steadfastly unimpressed by anything they do.