John Van der Kiste

A good book about the second King of the Hanoverian dynasty. The lives of George and Caroline are interesting to read about. In love at the beginning of their marriage, the King eventually took mistresses, but never fell out of love with his wife. I loved how he wanted to be buried with her and wanted the middle of their coffins to be removed so that their "dust" could mingle. Of course, the couple also had their trials with their children, as all Hanoverian monarchs seemed to have had. An show more interesting read. show less

Entertaining romp through the villains of the early 18th century. Jonathan Wild was Britain's most notorious thief-taker, basically a habitual criminal who decided it was more profitable to play honest-broker and return stolen property (for a modest fee) to the victim even though it was his gang that had stolen it in the first place. He also had a secondary line in selling out his fellow criminals and even his own gang members to the authorities for a reward, and was apparently responsible show more for the hanging of up to 120 men. His gang included some of the elite of London's underworld, including Jack Sheppard, Nathaniel Hawes and William Burridge, all of whom ended up on the gallows. That fate eventually and inevitably fell to Wild as well, losing favour with his adoring public, he was arrested on a minor charge, sentenced to death, and after a failed suicide attempt went to the gallows at Tyburn being abused and pelted with filth by the crowds along the way. A short book, but highly entertaining, well worth the read if you are into crime of the days when simply stealing a handkerchief could see you dance the Tyburn hornpipe. show less

So many typos that several sentences are indecipherable. Van der Kiste's researching abilities don't help. He seems to feel the need to throw everything he's learned at the reader with no coherent synthesis, so in one paragraph he'll tell you that, universally, adult Alfred was hated, then prove it by quoting someone who says child Alfred was often petulant, prove it further by quoting someone who says young man Alfred seemed to have a chip on his shoulder, and finish the paragraph by show more quoting someone saying Alfred was really quite an okay guy. Thesis proven?

But if you're like me and you're hungry for all the stories of Victoria's family, all the complicated dynamics, all the traipsing from Balmoral to Osborne to Windsor, then this is a rare source on Affie that contains some good stuff. Don't read it as your only biography of Victoria's children, but it's pretty fun as a supplement after you've read two or three others (one of them should be Hannah Pakula's incredible biography of eldest daughter Vicky, "An Uncommon Woman"). show less

This was a highly enjoyable and immensely readable biography of the four daughters-in-law of Queen Victoria. Two of them, Alexandra and Marie, are quite well-known to most people who have studied the lives of Queen Victoria's descendants. The other two, Louise and Helen, are more elusive. For me, the parts about Louise and Helen were the most interesting. Admittedly, the former two daughters-in-law played a more central role in the story of the British royal family. However, the latter two show more daughters-in-law are just as complex and just as interesting in their own right.

An excellent read. show less