Vita Sackville-West described Edwardian England as ‘a world where pleasure fell like a ripened peach for the outstretching of a hand’. One hand that would certainly have been greedily outstretched was that of Edward VII, whose extravagant, pleasure-loving nature in many ways defined his kingdom, as Richard Davenport-Hines demonstrates in this entertaining book in the Penguin Monarchs series.

Subscribe or Sign In to read the full article