In 1991, she left the Journal to become a freelance journalist, producing works for The Times, The Guardian, The Observer, and the Sunday Telegraph.
[7][8] As well as telling Mary Eleanor’s remarkable story I had to bone up on 18th century law, botany, crime and domestic violence.
Bowes' second husband, an Irish soldier who conned her into matrimony and then pursued her after their separation,[10] is said to have inspired Thackeray's The Luck of Barry Lyndon.
[11] The Washington Post columnist Jonathan Yardley stated that Moore "writes lively and literate prose... She has done a heroic amount of research, bringing her characters to life with singular verisimilitude and portraying 18th-century courtship and marriage in full detail, never forgetting that although Mary Eleanor Bowes was uncommonly privileged and wealthy, at root her lot was that of every other woman of her day.
"[11] Describing the book as "meticulously researched", The Guardian's Katie Toms believed it was "ripe for film adaptation.
Moore is a fan of historical fiction, and lists Jean Plaidy's Madonna of the Seven Hills as one of the first books she purchased.