Mary Somerville (1780-1872), after whom Somerville College Oxford was
named, was the first woman scientist to win an international reputation
entirely in her own right, rather than through association with a
scientific brother or father.
She was active in astronomy, one of the most demanding areas of science
of the day, and flourished in the unique British tradition of Grand
Amateurs, who paid their own way and were not affiliated with any
academic institution.
Mary Somerville was to science what Jane Austen was to literature and
Frances Trollope to travel writing. Allan Chapman's vivid account brings
to light the story of an exceptional woman, whose achievements in a
field dominated by men deserve to be very widely known.