Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow was an insightful look by Lucy Worsley into key moments of Queen Victoria's life. This non-fiction piece approached Victoria's life by using her diaries and key days throughout her life to build a picture of Victoria as a daughter, wife, mother and widow. It focused less on her achievements throughout her reign; her impact on the nation, her influence over the empire etc and focused on her as an individual and her family. The book followed Victoria from her birth (so this was before her diaries), to her coronation, to marrying Albert, to having her first child, to losing Albert and into her widowhood and death. I think this was a very appropriate and a more revealing approach to Victoria's life to understand how she acted as Queen and how events unfolded during her reign.

The novel painted Victoria as a very interesting individual; Worsley was not afraid to describe her as childish or needy. She also focused on Victoria's mistakes, such as the incident with Lady Flora Hastings who she accused of being pregnant (because of her distended liver which had a tumour on it that made her look pregnant). This was despite Lady Flora being an unmarried virgin; Lady Flora was subject to an intrusive and painful medical examination to prove she was not pregnant, and ended up dying shortly after. This scandal wrecked Victoria's public image in her early reign. This showed Victoria in a different light to her being revered as a long-reigning Queen and showed how she could have moments of cruelty and make mistakes like everyone else.

Worsley balanced this, however by discussing Victoria's widowhood when she took control and acted in her own right as Queen. I am not sure we would have ever witnessed a strong Victoria had Albert lived and supported her throughout her reign. This is because Albert was very much a dominant presence in Victoria's era life, and Worsley delved into this without making the book solely about their relationship. I learnt lots about Victoria's relationship with Albert which was not framed as this perfect happy marriage and all consuming love that we always see. Worsley did not shy away from criticising Albert and pointing out how he actually failed in his duty to Victoria. Albert wanted to be king, when actually he was a prince; he was fulfilling the typical 'princess' role (princesses married for political allegiance and were supposed to support their husband and not rule) and he was not comfortable in this role. He wanted to be the man of the household and man of the marriage; only having a wife who was Queen of England made this impossible.

I also learnt that Victoria replaced Albert later in life with two different servants: John Brown and Abdul Karim. It was interesting to see how much Victoria depended upon this companionship and support. Especially when one considers John Brown was a alcoholic and a servant and Abdul Karim was a Indian servant (not respected at the time for his origin). These men seemed unlikely candidates for Victoria to associate herself with. The dynamic in this time meant that a relationship with a servant for a Queen (because she was a woman) was very taboo as women were expected to be above this behaviour. However, Lucy Worsley makes a good point that Kings were expected to be promiscuous and have mistresses and yet, for Queen Victoria the exact opposite was expected. The most interesting thing for me, was that I had never heard of either John Brown or Abdul Karim until I listened to Lucy Worsley's book. For two men who seemed to have a profound impact on Victoria's widowhood, they seem to have largely been lost in general discussions about Victoria.

Lucy Worlsey also focused on Victoria's relationships with her mother and then her own children. It can certainly be seen through this book that Victoria was not the typical 'motherly' figure one may expect. It may even be seen that the reason Albert encouraged her to have so many children was to keep her away from public duty and politics; so he could take over in her absence. It was a very interesting argument and one that I find particularly compelling. It became clear that Victoria became increasingly dependent upon her youngest daughter, Beatrice and had a great hold over Beatrice throughout her life.

The final point that I thought was particularly interesting, was Lucy Worlsey's focus on health. Health is not often at the forefront of historical works. However, she discussed Victoria's health throughout her life: her near-death experience as a teenager, the case of Lady Flora Hastings, the relationship Victoria had with her doctors, her experience of childbirth, the death of Albert, Bertie's struggle with typhoid. This was personally very interesting and provided lots of context to the way Victoria behaved and how her life was shaped by her overall health.

On a more personal note, this book, cemented my view that I shall never like Victoria as a Queen. I found her to be childish and needy at many points; from her dependency on Prime Minister Lord Melbourne and then Albert, and in later life her daughter Beatrice. She never seemed to be able to stand on her own. I do understand that part of this was related to her closeted upbringing and her position as a woman in Victorian England. However, I think Victoria's reign was a time of change and upheaval and that should not be ignored. She reigned for a very long time, and without Victoria's reign I am curious to know if we would still have a monarchy in England today.

Overall, I really enjoyed Lucy Worsley's approach to Victoria's life and the insights she provided across her long reign from birth to death. For anybody interested in British history, monarchy, life stories, Queen Victoria and women's history this book is definitely a recommendation. I think it provides a lot of good and balanced information about the woman behind the crown and how she functioned on a personal level. I really hope that Lucy Worsley writes more books like this as I thoroughly enjoyed it.