Books on British royalty (non-Tudor)

[Teddy]

Who can tell me about this book: LONGFORD, ELIZABETH (ED.),   Darling Loosy: Letters to Princess Louise, 1856-1939.
What kind of letters can you expect? Family letters? Such as Advice to a grand daughter?

[Eddie_uk]

Hey Teddy! I have this book and is interesting. Lots of letters from her brother Arthur and some from Leopold and Beatrice. I don't think it's as interesting as Advice to a Grandaughter, is quite hard going in places but worth having

[grandduchessella]

It's a bit different from many of the books of letters involving members of Queen Victoria--chiefly because there really aren't letters from Queen Victoria in it. This lends it a different tone (in my opinion) from other books. On the other hand, I enjoyed reading letters in the 'voices' of members of the royal family that aren't usually heard from, especially Prince Arthur. The book isn't as rich as a could be considering the sheer amount of years that are covered. Perhaps this is because the letters just weren't there but it could just have been the choice selection. There was such a wealth of time that was covered--from the Victorian era through the Abdication and the eve of WW2. It would've been nice if the book was larger--it wasn't much bigger than some of the letters of Queen Victoria to/from Vicky that cover just 5 years. The book does provided a different perspective on the royals though and I'm really glad that I have the book in my library.

[s.v.markov]

I found this very interesting photo album at a book fair today. Sub-titled 'Photographs from my Camera', it is arranged just like an old-fashioned photo album, with black and white photos loosely pasted in, and each page protected with tissue paper. Subjects of the photos include family groups, pets, ships, military manoeuvres, Sandringham, Balmoral, Nicholas II at Reval and the IF on board 'Standart', trips to Greece, Norway, Denmark, and loads more. No text, but all photos are captioned. Did I buy it? Of course I did! Does anyone know if these books came out regularly, or is this a one off? I think I recall seeing something like it on display at the 'Nicholas & Alexandra' exhibition in Edinburgh in 2005.

[Robert_Hall]

I think it was a One-off to raise money for  charity, Red Cross maybe. I have it here as well.

[grandduchessella]

Yes, it was a charity item. There are a lot of copies of it available because of this--luckily, or it'd probably cost a fortune. There was a similar charity photo book that was put out that contained informal photos taken by various members of the British and Danish royal families--including 'Aunt Swan', Prince Arthur of Connaught, Queen Alexandra and, I think, the Duke of York (GVI), amongst others.

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

I have seen this book quite frequently advertised for sale on ebay- often for as little as 99p- I hope you didn't pay a lot for yours!

I believe Princess Mary and the two Elizabeths also released charity books, though they are story books with illustrations by popular artists such as Dulac and Rackham rather than photo books.

I am yet to get a copy of the Queen Alexandra album but I will get one eventually- it seems like a lovely book.

Rachel
xx

edited to add that there is a 99p copy for sale on UK ebay right now if anyone wants, only 20 hours left to go-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/QUEEN-ALEXANDRASCHRISTMAS-GIFT-BOOK-1908_W0QQitemZ330076600431QQihZ014QQcategoryZ11100QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[carkuczyn]

i am looking for a good biography on queen victoria.  Any recommendations?

[Grace]

Two I would recommend are Queen Victoria: A Portrait by Giles St. Aubyn and Victoria R.I. by Elizabeth Longford.  Both are very good studies of the Great Lady by renowned authors and go into a lot of detail about other members of the family and personalities of the time.  These are classics!

[grandduchessella]

I love the St Aubyn bio and the Longford one was the first royal bio I ever read. 

I would add Stanley Weintraub's bio as well.

[Kimberly]

I love Theo Aronson's "Grandmother of Europe"

[s.v.markov]

No, I didn't pay a lot more ~ it's amazing that such a very nice 1908 book can still be found so cheaply, while I couldn't find a copy of the fake Mouchanow memoirs for less than £75....until a very good member of this Forum stepped in and saved the day!

[carkuczyn]

As a Christmas present, I got "Queen Victoria, A Personal History" by Christopher Hibbert.  It has lots of good photos.  I have just started reading it and it seems pretty good so far although i am only into the third chapter.  Does anyone have an opinion on this biography?

[ilyala]

i have one by stanley weintraub, 'victoria, an intimate biography'. i found it quite nice although it didn't cover everything i was interested in.

[LadyCatherine]

I know a lot of you have read just about everything out there on royalty and some of you have even written books yourselves!  I'm thinking about making a trip to the bookstore and wanted to know if anyone had any recommendations on any royal family of any time (I pretty much like all of it)!  I especially like ones with great pics (like Zeepvat's) or ones that are on a handful of royals (and have more specific info) like "Victoria's Daughters."  So...any ideas would be so helpful!