Katy Holborn

Queen Victoria Katy Holborn

Queen Victoria: A Queen Victoria BiographyThe Victorian era defined many subsequent generations. It was a time of increased social, political and financial rectitude.
It was a time of the expansion of the Empire, as Britain (for good, or as it is often considered today, bad) and its armies sought to extend their influence across the planet.
Indeed, the Victorian period is often regarded as a time of peace, but in fact, there were almost continuous wars during the era. Afghanistan, India, Africa, the Crimea...
Victorian Britain was a time of great industrial progress; a time of poverty in the cities but the birth of education. At the time she took the throne one child in five failed to reach their fifth birthday.
A time of greater democracy and a front of respectability hiding darker secrets, of Jack the Ripper and, for thirty years of Victorias reign, deportation to Australia could be a life sentence for the most insignificant of crimes.
But what of the Queen of this time? This book will examine the way her childhood shaped her own role as mother to no fewer than nine children. How the appearance of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha changed her, with his presence living on after her death. It will look at her relations with politicians, with her servants especially the Scot John Brown, her role as Empress of India and the magnificent homes built for her by her husband. Until our present queen surpassed the figure, Victoria was the longest serving monarch in British history. Through her diaries, which she kept from childhood, we learn of life as a royal in those times.