Victoria Dawson has always felt like an outcast. When her little sister Grace is born, father Jim tells Victoria she was the tester cake, and they finally got it right with the beautiful Gracie. Victoria grows up in her sister's shadow, and though she loves Gracie dearly, she's anxious to leave home. The pain doesn't stop there, though. Her father calls her first job at a prestigious private school in Manhattan pathetic, and Victoria begins a battle with her weight and her belief that she is unlovable (even though men pursue her).
We Two - Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals
It was the most influential marriage of the nineteenth century--and one of history’s most enduring love stories. Traditional biographies tell us that Queen Victoria inherited the throne as a naïve teenager, when the British Empire was at the height of its power, and seemed doomed to find failure as a monarch and misery as a woman until she married her German cousin Albert and accepted him as her lord and master. Now renowned chronicler Gillian Gill turns this familiar story on its head, revealing a strong, feisty queen and a brilliant, fragile prince working together to build a family based on support, trust, and fidelity, qualities neither had seen much of as children.
The Great Courses. Modern History: Victorian Britain (Audiobook). By Professor Patrick N. AllittBy Professor Patrick N. Allitt
Darwin. Gladstone. Disraeli. Dickens. Meet the pioneering, paradoxical Britons of the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901).
This course is a chronological journey into the Victorian story with all its strengths and foibles and invites you to reflect on its lessons both positive and negative. You move from the unexpected ascension to the throne of teenaged Princess Victoria in 1837 to her death in 1901 as the Boer War neared its end.
Almost 120 entries cover Victoria's extended family and close friends, members of her household, private secretaries, personal interests, prime ministers, "pet hates" and obsessions, and homes. Also covered are various topics and political events that marked and help define the Victorian era. Examples include Brown, John; Jack the Ripper; Koh-I-Noor diamond; Racial and religious prejudice; Smoking; and, of course, her beloved husband, Prince Albert. Each entry is a minimum of two pages, with most being four to five pages long. Related entries and further readings are listed at the end of each.
The Curse of the Kings – Victoria Holtby – Victoria Holt
Absolute top-notch Holt this one. Clearly inspired by The Curse of Tutankhamun (she even names a patch of land Carter’s Meadow, presumably after Howard Carter), Egypt is the perfect setting for a Holt mystery romance. The first half of the book though is set back in England, with Our Heroine, Judith, becoming obsessed with her glamorous archaeologist neighbour, Sir Tybalt Travers. Judith though is having to earn a crust working as a downtrodden companion to the horrible Lady Bodrean, and doesn’t think she has a hope of attracting Tybalt’s attentions. Of course she does, they get married, and she joins him on an archaeological dig ..
