Lucy Worsley

'A wonderfully fresh, vivid and engaging portrait.' Jane Ridley, author of Bertie: A Life of Edward VII 'Has much of the abundant charm of its author.' Spectator 'The glory of this book is in the details.' The Times 'Worsley's command of the material and elegant writing style make this a must-read.' Publisher's Weekly 'An intimate glimpse.' Daily Mail 'An engaging portrait of the monarch.' i paper 'Provides a unique insight into this inscrutable monarch.' Choice Magazine 'In this lively, light-footed biography, just out in paperback, the popular TV historian Lucy Worsley looks at just 24 days of Victoria's 81-year long life to reveal unexpected sides to the monarch.' BBC History Magazine ******************************* Who was Queen Victoria? A little old lady, potato-like in appearance, dressed in everlasting black? She was also a passionate young princess who loved dancing. And there is also a third Victoria, the brilliant queen, one who invented a new role for the monarchy. Victoria found a way of ruling when people were deeply uncomfortable with having a woman on the throne. Her image as a conventional daughter, wife and widow concealed the reality of a talented, instinctive politician. Her actions, if not her words, reveal that she was tearing up the rules on how to be female. But the price of this was deep personal pain. By looking in detail at twenty-four days of her life, through diaries, letters and more, we meet Queen Victoria up-close and personal. Living with her from hour to hour, we can see and celebrate the contradictions that make up British history's most recognisable woman.

Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow

Queen Victoria

The story of the queen who defied convention and defined an era Perhaps one of the best known of the English monarchs, Queen Victoria forever shaped a chapter of English history, bequeathing her name to the Victorian age. In Queen Victoria, Lucy Worsley introduces this iconic woman in a new light. Going beyond an exploration of the Queen merely as a monarch, Worsley considers Victoria as a woman leading a truly extraordinary life in a unique time period. The book is structured around the various roles that Victoria inhabited— a daughter raised to wield power, a loving but tempestuous wife, a controlling mother, and a cunning widow—all while wearing the royal crown. Far from a proto-feminist, Queen Victoria was socially conservative and never supported women’s rights. And yet, Victoria thwarted the strict rules of womanhood that defined the era to which she gave her name. She was passionate, selfish, and moody, boldly defying the will of politicians who sought to control her and emotionally controlling her family for decades. How did the woman who defined Victorian womanhood also manage to defy its conventions? Drawing from the vast collection of Victoria’s correspondence and the rich documentation of her life, Worsley recreates twenty-four of the most important days in Victoria's life including her parents' wedding day, the day she met Albert, her own wedding day, the birth of her first child, a Windsor Christmas, the death of Prince Albert, and many more. Each day gives a glimpse into the identity of this powerful, difficult queen as a wife and widow, mother and matriarch, and above all, a woman of her time.

Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life

As the youngest daughter who is living at home at 26, this cracks me up. 

Sarah Campbell

The youngest daughter in any well-off Victorian family understood that she would be expected to remain at home, unmarried, to be her parents companion and carer.

Queen Victoria Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow

Reviews

Highlights