Philip Hensher

Far from being our dullest king, George V was full of surprises

He was not only an avid reader but a skilled negotiator, who ensured the survival of the British monarchy at a time of deep crisis, says Jane Ridley

Portrait of George V in his coronation robes by Sir Luke Fildes. [Alamy] 
issue 13 November 2021

‘Victorian’ stuck, and ‘Edwardian’ too. But ‘Georgian’, as an adjective associated with the next monarch in line, never caught on. It was already assigned, of course, but George V very strikingly didn’t embody his time in the way that his father and grandmother did. The adjective only really succeeded in one specific instance: as the name of a school of poets.

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