Queen Victoria with the naughty bits put back

Queen Victoria was the inventor of official royal biography. It was she who commissioned the monumental five-volume life of Prince Albert, a controversial and revealing work. She wrote most of the personal sections herself. She also published bestselling volumes, such as Leaves from a Journal of Our Life in the Highlands. She was a gifted and prolific writer, penning an estimated 2,500 words a day. When she died in 1901, however, there was no authorised biography. Instead, the decision was made to publish her letters. People tend to assume that letters are the truth but, as Yvonne Ward shows in this original and engaging book, selection is everything.

The idea of editing Victoria’s letters originated with Lord Esher. Feline, manipulative and magnificently creepy, he was a courtier who would have felt at home with the Borgias. His master, King Edward VII, who was never known to read a book, had a horror of putting the royal family on show, and was neurotic about documents.