Alienated Affections: Divorce and Separation in Scotland 1684-1830

by Leah Leneman

Personal accounts of adultery, cruelty, desertion and nullity fill this exposition of divorce and separation in Scotland in the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Leah Leneman brings vividly to life the marriages and affairs, loves and hates, tenderness and harshness experienced by men and women whose marriages broke down in this period. Their stories, told in their own words, come from the entire spectrum of Scottish society, from the aristocracy to the 'common' people.

Contrary to popular belief, divorce and legal separation were available on equal terms to men and women in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Scotland. Alienated Affections offers an overall picture of this phenomenon, richly illustrated by the experiences of individuals.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 6, 1998

About the author

Her first career was as a stage actress in New York. Leah then wrote Vegan cookery books, before studying at the University of Edinburgh, obtaining a degree in history followed by doctoral research on social life on the Atholl estate in the eighteenth century

Her focus was on women’s history and Scottish history.