Book News January 2019

Carolina of Orange-Nassau: Ancestress of the royal houses of Europe

Paperback – 25 January 2019 (UK) & 5 February 2019 (US)

Carolina of Orange-Nassau (1743 1787) was born the daughter of William IV, Prince of Orange, and Anne, Princess Royal and was thus the granddaughter of King George II. It was upon the King’s orders that she was named after his wife, Caroline of Ansbach. She was the first of Anne and William’s children to survive to adulthood. When her father was at last made stadtholder of all seven united provinces, Carolina was included in the line of succession, in the event she had no brothers. A brother was eventually born, but due to his weak health, she remained an important figure. Carolina married Charles Christian of Nassau-Weilburg and suffered the loss of half her children, either in childbirth or infancy. Despite this, she acted as regent for her minor brother while heavily pregnant and remained devoted to him and the Dutch republic. Her children married well and her descendants sit upon the royal thrones of Europe, truly making her a grandmother of Europe.

Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life

Paperback – 8 January 2019 (US) & 2 March 2019 (UK)

Bestselling author and historian Lucy Worsley tracks a new course through Queen Victoria’s life, examining how she transformed from dancing princess to the Widow of Windsor and became one of Britain’s greatest monarchs along the way. Taking twenty-four significant days from Victoria’s life, from her birth, her wedding, her coronation to her husband’s death, and many more in between, allows us to see Victoria up close and personal, examining how she lived hour to hour.

Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birth, this major new biography will celebrate Queen Victoria as a woman of her time, who lived an extraordinary life.

Queen Mary

Paperback – 10 January 2019 (UK)

The official biography of Queen Mary, grandmother of the current Queen, originally commissioned in 1959 – with a new foreword by Hugo Vickers.

When Queen Mary died in 1953, James Pope-Hennessy was commissioned to write an official biography of her – unusual for a Queen Consort. Queen Mary’s life, contrary to popular belief, was essentially dramatic, and she played a far more important and influential role in the affairs of the British monarchy than her public image might have otherwise suggested. Using material from the Royal Archives, private papers and Queen Mary’s personal diaries and letters, Pope-Hennessy’s biography was a remarkable portrait of a remarkable woman and received rave reviews across the press.

Long out of print, this new edition of Queen Mary will be accompanied by a new foreword from royal biographer and writer Hugo Vickers.

Queen of the World: Elizabeth II: Sovereign and Stateswoman

Hardcover – 1 January  2019 (UK & US)

Written by renowned royal biographer, Robert Hardman, and with privileged access to the Royal Family and the Royal Household, this is a brilliant new portrait of the most famous woman in the world and her place in it.

Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots

Paperback – 22 January 2019 (UK & US)

From the great courts, glittering palaces, and war-ravaged battlefields of the seventeenth century comes the story of four spirited sisters and their glamorous mother, Elizabeth Stuart, granddaughter of the martyred Mary, Queen of Scots.
Upon her father’s ascension to the illustrious throne of England, Elizabeth Stuart was suddenly thrust from the poverty of unruly Scotland into the fairy-tale existence of a princess of great wealth and splendor. When she was married at sixteen to a German count far below her rank, it was with the understanding that her father would help her husband achieve the kingship of Bohemia. The terrible betrayal of this commitment would ruin “the Winter Queen,” as Elizabeth would forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loved, and launch a war that would last for thirty years.
Forced into exile, the Winter Queen and her family found refuge in Holland, where the glorious art and culture of the Dutch Golden Age indelibly shaped her daughters’ lives. Her eldest, Princess Elizabeth, became a scholar who earned the respect and friendship of the philosopher René Descartes. Louisa was a gifted painter whose engaging manner and appealing looks provoked heartache and scandal. Beautiful Henrietta Maria would be the only sister to marry into royalty, although at great cost. But it was the youngest, Sophia, a heroine in the tradition of a Jane Austen novel, whose ready wit and good-natured common sense masked immense strength of character, who fulfilled the promise of her great-grandmother Mary and reshaped the British monarchy, a legacy that endures to this day.
Brilliantly researched and captivatingly written, filled with danger, treachery, and adventure but also love, courage, and humor, Daughters of the Winter Queen follows the lives of five remarkable women who, by refusing to surrender to adversity, changed the course of history.

Bognor and Other Regises: A Potted History of Britain in 100 Royal Places

Hardcover – 1 October 2018 (UK) & 1 January 2019 (US)

A potted history of Britain in 100 royal places, this is a round-up of Britain’s most fascinating royal attractions, written in an amusing, accessible style that puts the spotlight on some of Britain’s quirkiest royals and uncovers fascinating facts and anecdotes about them all. Included is a timeline showing the English heritage at a glance. Highlights include special features to look out for, the best times to visit, and other places of interest in the vicinity. In this amusing and fast-paced tour of Britain, Caroline Taggart is our guide to all the weird and wonderful places connected with royalty over the last 1,500 years.

Revival: The Women Bonapartes vol. I (1908): The Mother and Three Sisters of Napoleon I (Routledge Revivals)

Paperback – 31 December 2018 (UK) & 9 January 2019 (US)

No info.

Cecily Duchess of York

Paperback – 24 January 2019 (US & UK)

This is the first scholarly biography of Cecily Neville, duchess of York, the mother of Edward IV and Richard III. She was said to have ruled Edward IV ‘as she pleased’ and Richard III made his bid for the throne from her home. Yet Cecily has been a shadowy figure in modern histories, noted primarily for her ostentatious piety, her expensive dresses, and the rumours of her adultery.

Here J. L. Laynesmith draws on a wealth of rarely considered sources to construct a fresh and revealing portrait of a remarkable woman. Cecily was the only major protagonist to live right through the Wars of the Roses. This book sheds new light on that bloody conflict in which Cecily proved herself an exceptional political survivor. Skilfully manipulating her family connections and contemporary ideas about womanhood, Cecily repeatedly reinvented herself to protect her own status and to ensure the security of those in her care.

From her childhood marriage to Richard duke of York until her final decade as grandmother of the first Tudor queen, the story of Cecily Neville’s life provides a rich insight into national and local politics, women’s power and relationships, motherhood, household dynamics and the role of religion in fifteenth-century England.