Julia Mary Seton Abel Smith[1] DL is a British historian and historical preservationist.
She has authored the books Pavilions in Peril (1988) and Forbidden Wife (2020), the latter of which is about the relationship and eventual marriage of Lady Augusta Murray and Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex.
[4][8] In 1987, she wrote a report on the deteriorating state of British garden buildings for Save Britain's Heritage, titled Pavilion in Peril;[9] the same and next year, she and the report were cited in several news articles on the condition of follies, including in the New York Times.
[8][4] In February 2020, Abel Smith published Forbidden Wife, a historical book about the relationship and eventual marriage of Lady Augusta Murray and Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex.
[17][18] In her review of The Forbidden Wife for Tatler, Francesca Carington described Abel Smith as "a wonderful storyteller", noting that "her descriptions of late-eighteenth-century Virginia, Rome and London are almost novel-like in colour and detail".