Publication date: 2004-02-16
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £71.99
Price: £71.99
Review Queen Victoria / Indypublish.com:
Publication date: 1990-05-23
RRP: £12.95
Price: £3.50
Review Queen Mother / Doubleday:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 1999-04-06
Price: £8.99
Review Sisters to the King / Andre Deutsch Ltd:History is often as interesting for what gets left out as for what gets included. Maria Perry's Sisters to the King is a case in point. Most of us know something about Henry VIII; that he was quite large, that he had six wives-two of whom he had executed; that he split the Church over his divorce from Katharine of Aragon and declared himself "Defender of the Faith". What most of us don't know is that Henry had two sisters, Margaret and Mary. And the reason we don't know is because both women have been written out of the popular histories. And yet, as Perry makes clear, both women were thought to be far more important figures in their lifetimes than any of Henry's six wives. Margaret was married off to James IV of Scotland at the age of 13. He was subsequently killed by Henry's armies and her children were snatched from her. Mary was one of the great beauties of her day and was married off in another political marriage to the ageing King of France. Despite the prevailing male-dominated cultural climate-wives were frequently not even allowed to sit down to eat at the same table as their husbands-Margaret and Mary were not doormats. [+]After the death of their first husbands both women defied convention and stood up to their brother by choosing to marry their second husbands for love. Mary waltzed off with the Duke of Suffolk and Margaret with the Earl of Angus. Even when Angus proved faithless, she stood up for herself by seeking a divorce. And when her third husband, the Earl of Methven turned out to be in the same mould as Angus, she divorced him, too. Perry steers a skilful passage between the personal and the political and creates a vivid sense of time and place. Mary and Margaret become real people negotiating the minefields of Tudor culture and politics and along the way Perry uncovers new insights into such unresolved questions as, for example, whether Katherine of Aragon's first marriage to Arthur, Henry's elder brother, was ever consummated. The main problem with the book is that Perry doesn't seem to have decided whether she was writing an academic text or a popular history. The front jacket rather proclaims it as the latter, but the wealth of detail, the assumed knowledge and the somewhat donnish prose suggest it to be the former. Even so, Sisters to the King is a formidable book, which amply repays the readers investment. But be warned: you have to put a lot of effort in up front. -John Crace.
Publication date: 1992-10-01
Dewey code: 956.015
Price: £45.00
Review Britain's Persian Connection, 1798-1828: Prelude to the Great Game in Asia / Clarendon Press:
RRP: £8.99
Price: £4.25
Review Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire / HarperCollins:Georgiana Spencer was, in a sense, an 18th-century "It Girl". She came from one of England's richest and most landed families, and married into another. She was, beautiful, sensitive, and extravagant. Acquainted fairly young with Charles James Fox, her move from parties to Parties led her to become the intimate of ministers and princes, and she canvassed assiduously for the Whig cause, most famously in the Westminster election of 1784. By turns she was caricatured and fawned on by the press, and she provided the inspiration for Lady Teazle in Sheridan's School For Scandal. But, luckily for her biographer, she also had weaknesses that were to taint her life. As gin gripped the masses, so gambling thralled the aristocracy. By 1784 Georgiana owed "many, many, many thousands", and the creditors she acquired dogged her until her death, but the sterility of her marriage meant that she never came close to disclosing the magnitude of her debts. Amanda Foreman describes astutely the mess that was personal relationships for the aristocratic subculture (Georgiana and the Duke engaged for many years in a ménage à trois with Lady Elizabeth Fraser, who inveigled her way into his bed and her heart). She is, by her own admission, a little in love with her subject, which can lead to occasional lapses of perspective, but generally it adds zest to a narrative built on, rather than burdened by, scholarship, that is at once accessible and learned. [+]An impressive debut, in every sense. -David Vincent.
Authors
- Martin Salisbury
- Dorothy Turner
Dewey code: 942.0550924
RRP: £7.79
Price: £20.86
Review Queen Elizabeth I (Great Lives) / Franklin Watts:
Publication date: 1997-06
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £17.99
Price: £12.95
Review My Darling Buffy: The Early Life of the Queen Mother / Richard Cohen Books Ltd:
Publication date: 2004-02-16
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £75.99
Price: £75.99
Review Queen Victoria / Indypublish.com:
Publication date: 2003-10-01
RRP: £73.99
Price: £73.99
Review Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, V2 / Indypublish.com:
Creator: Stephanie Beacham
Publication date: 1992-11-01
Price: £7.99
Review Diana: Her True Story (Diana Princess of Wales) includes sensational update on the Royals / Simon & Schuster Audio:Diana: Her True Story was originally published in 1992 under the guise of a quasi-authorised biography with mostly unnamed courtiers and royalty as the accredited sources. It instantly became a sizzling, international bestseller that lanced the boil of Windsor family dysfunction, triggering a chain of events that led to Charles and Diana's divorce. After her tragic death in 1997, Andrew Morton revealed that Diana herself had not only been the main source for the book, but had also edited his original drafts for accuracy. In return for this gold mine of information, Diana wanted complete anonymity for fear of retaliation from the queen. Her True Story in Her Own Words is enhanced by more than 75 full-colour photographs of the princess, from her childhood in Althorp to her marriage to Charles at Westminster Abbey to her humanitarian efforts and finally to her unforgettable funeral service. However, the most poignant portrayal of the princess emerges from the unedited transcriptions of Diana's interviews with Morton: "I think I'm going to cut a very different path from everyone else. I'm going to break away from this set-up and go and help the man on the street. " -Amazon. com.
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 1990-07-05
Price: £3.99
Review Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother / Mandarin:
Publication date: 1998-03-09
RRP: £20.00
Price: £77.27
Review George III: A Personal History / Viking:Clearly and engagingly written, with evident affection for his subject, Christopher Hibbert's George III describes the life and times of the man widely believed to have mistaken an oak tree for the King of Prussia. He didn't. That was one of many rumours spread by courtiers during his first bout of the insanity caused by porphyria: a rare hereditary disease, endemic in the Stuarts and transmitted to the Hanoverans via George I's mother, Sophia. Colourfully illustrated and studded with witticisms, this book shows how George III's efforts to behave as a king ought to have earned him considerable popularity. Like Hibbert's Life of Johnson, Nelson and Wellington, this is more than a biography, and is subtitled A Personal History. This means that we don't only get the inside information on the monarch's manifold eccentricities, his charitable deeds, his love of books, clocks and large families, his cheerful fidelity to a plain and difficult wife, and what he felt about his nine legitimate and approximately 53 illegitimate grandchildren. We also learn about the background to the American War of Independence, the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots and the intricacies of English-or rather British-politics during the second half of the 18th century. A terrific, informative read for anyone interested in the monarchy and 18th- century history and politics. Lisa Gee -.
Publication date: 2003-11-30
Dewey code: 941.0850922
RRP: £9.78
Price: £5.66
Review The Windsor Knot: Charles, Camilla and the Legacy of Diana / Citadel Press:
Publication date: 1991-07-01
RRP: £13.99
Price: £21.21
Review A Princely Marriage: Charles and Diana - The First Ten Years / Bantam Press:
Publication date: 1992-11-24
Dewey code: 942.055
RRP: £50.00
Price: £105.33
Review Elizabeth I: War and Politics 1588-1603 / Princeton University Press:
Authors
- Arthur [ foreword by Howard Marshall ] Groom
Review Edward The Eighth - Our King, also included is a 4 page leaflet First Broadcast of King Edward VIII ( March 1st 1936 ) and a 32 page Souvenir Programme of The Wedding of Pricess Elizabeth and ... Philip Mountbatten 20th nov. 1947 / Allied Newspapers , London:
Publication date: 2003-10-01
RRP: £78.99
Price: £78.99
Review Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, V2 / Indypublish.com:
Creator: Sue MacGregor
Publication date: 2000-07-03
RRP: £15.99
Price: £8.90
Review The Queen Mother: A Radio Tribute (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:Deeply concerned and committed to her duties when Sovereign Consort of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth's unpretentious manner quickly won the respect and affection of her beloved husband's subjects. Her immutable aptitude for appropriate words of consolation, praise or enjoyment, both privately and publicly, is highlighted in this comprehensive treasure trove from the BBC archive. Cut-glass voices of decades past from family, friends and ladies in waiting divulge cherished memories; impeccably enunciating radio commentators describe her participation in coronations, ship launchings, royal tours, royal marriages and divorces, and royal deaths, and members of the public recall and relive the magic moment of seeing or meeting her. The Queen Mother's facility as a natural public speaker puts her head and shoulders above the rest of her family in that discipline; typically her acceptance on being made Warden of The Cinque Ports. Her informed observation of life during the war, works of art, horses, overseas travel to a far more extensive Commonwealth than exists today and the public duties she still undertakes show her to be no dowager locked in the past. Exuding dedication, wisdom and dynamism she has moved with the times in this world of changing values and behaviour. -Running time 2 hours 25 minutes -Lyn Took.
Creator: Nelson Mandela
Edition: Anniversary edition
Publication date: 2007-07-01
Dewey code: 941.085092
RRP: £20.00
Price: £16.90
Review Diana the Portrait / Andrews McMeel:
Authors
- Gerald S. Strober
- Deborah H. Strober
RRP: £20.00
Price: £0.01
Review The Monarchy: An Oral Biography of Elizabeth II / Hutchinson:
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Queen Victoria, Queen Mother, Sisters to the King, Britain's Persian Connection, 1798-1828: Prelude to the Great Game in Asia, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, Queen Elizabeth I (Great Lives), My Darling Buffy: The Early Life of the Queen Mother, Queen Victoria, Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, V2, Diana: Her True Story (Diana Princess of Wales) includes sensational update on the Royals, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, George III: A Personal History, The Windsor Knot: Charles, Camilla and the Legacy of Diana, A Princely Marriage: Charles and Diana - The First Ten Years, Elizabeth I: War and Politics 1588-1603, Edward The Eighth - Our King, also included is a 4 page leaflet First Broadcast of King Edward VIII ( March 1st 1936 ) and a 32 page Souvenir Programme of The Wedding of Pricess Elizabeth and ... Philip Mountbatten 20th nov. 1947, Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, V2, The Queen Mother: A Radio Tribute (BBC Radio Collection), Diana the Portrait, The Monarchy: An Oral Biography of Elizabeth II |
