Serving Victoria

During the sixty-odd years of her reign, Queen Victoria gathered around her a household dedicated to her service. By following the lives of six members of her household - from governess to maid-of-honour, chaplain to personal physician - Serving Victoria offers a unique insight into the Victorian court with all its frustrations and absurdities. Sitting squarely at its centre is Victoria, and through the eyes of her household we see a Queen who is more vulnerable, more emotional, more selfish and more comical than is generally supposed. A woman who was prone to fits of giggles, who wept easily and often, who gobbled her food and shrank from confrontation, while insisting on controlling the lives of those around her. Serving Victoria provides a glimpse of what it meant and what it was like to serve the Queen. SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2012 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD