Customer Reviews
An Interesting Book - By: E. A. Redfearn, 24 Jul 2005 
The Victorian era was probably one of the most extraordinaryin British History. The country went through enormous changes due to the impact of Industrialisation & Politic & Economic change. Queen Victoria & Prince Albert produced nine children & most of them had an impact not only on British History, but European History as well since many of them married into European Families such as the Hohenzollerns which had such an effect on the growing militarism leading to World War 1in 1914. It must not be forgotten that Victoria's children were human, & they experienced the triumphs & tragedies which befall so many families. Indeed she outlived at least three of them, Alice, Leopold & Alfred who all died tragically young. And of course, her eldest son Bertie, Prince of Wales, whom she kept frustrated throughout most of his adult life by denying him a more important rolein British & European affairs, became acknowledged as the Uncle of Europe & the Peacemaker of Europe. A fascinating volume, not an academic study though, very easy to read which will appeal to many readers who wish to find out more about the Victorian family. Supplemented with many good photographs too.
A Very Interesting Book About A Human Family - By: E. A. Redfearn, 20 Jul 2005 Over many decades now, the Royal Family have always been put on a pedestal except perhaps during the past 20 years or so when a certain Diana Spencer married into the Royal Familyin 1981. Of course,in Queen Victoria's time, media exposure of the sort to which we are acusstomed to nowadays did not exist. So the public came to acknowledge that the Royals, because they were remote figures, were special people with extraordinary talents. We now know of course this was not true. What books like this does though is convey to the reader is that the Royals are human just the same as we are. Of course, they are priviledged, but they are not immune to the ups & downs like so many of us are. In fact, they have the triumphs & tragedies same as we do althoughin a different manner. This book reveals the very human side of Queen Victoria & Prince Albert's nine children, all of whomin more ways than one, had such influence on European History. Who could have known for example that upon Queen Victoria's deathin January 1901, that two of her grandsons George V & Kaiser Wilhelm II & a blood relation Tsar Nicholas II would all become embroiledin a terrible European Warin 1914? A fascinating book about a fascinating family. Armchair Historians would welcome this without a doubt. Very well researched & an easy to read format makes it a very good buy indeed.
A moving account of power, love and sadness. - By: A. J. Martin, 29 Nov 2004 John Van Der Kiste should be congratulated on this thoughtful & well written biography of Victoria & her children.
The book appears to be written emphatically & really conveys the heartbroken Queen Victoria as a deeply sad widow but at the same time sees her as a defiant politician during a turbulent timein history as well as being a proud, loving & protective Mother.
The pace of Van Der Kiste's book is perfect, dealing with each childin turn & allowing the reader to embrace each child's character, life & mainly the relationship with their mother.
A brilliant book that i read within days of buying it.
Entertaining portrait - By: , 15 Jul 2004 After reading Jerrold Packard's book about the Queen's daughters, I was glad to be able to buy an updated edition of John Van der Kiste's work about all nine children. Daphne Bennett wrote one with the same titlein 1980, but it only covered them until their marriages. This one covers the whole story from the birth of the Princess Royalin 1840 (with a prologue on the early life of Victoria & Albert) to the death of Beatricein 1944. The spotlight falls individually on eachin turn,in a way which I don't think anyone has attempted before. It's good to see the younger siblings getting some attention as well as their better-known elders - there can't be much more to say about the Empress Frederick or Edward VII. It's an entertaining portrait, written with warmth, sympathy, & soundly researched - & a book I for one will certainly treasure on my royalty bookshelves.
