Sarah Bradford
Royal Mail
Censoring Queen Victoria: How Two Gentlemen Edited a Queen and Created an Icon
By Yvonne M Ward
Oneworld 208pp £16.99 order from our bookshop
Would Victoria have been shocked had she known her collected letters were to be edited by two homosexuals? Did she even know what a homosexual was? This is the only question left unexamined by Yvonne Ward, who has written an unusual and fascinating book.
James Lees-Milne in his 1986 biography was the first to reveal the predatory nature of Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, which included a physical passion for his own son Maurice. Somehow Esher managed to keep what he called his ‘intime life’ secret from his powerful friends; he was a skilful networker and supreme courtier, on cordial terms with the royal family and, as private secretary to the Liberal leader the Marquess of Hartington (later 8th Duke of Devonshire), aware
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