Sarah Bradford

Royal Mail

Censoring Queen Victoria: How Two Gentlemen Edited a Queen and Created an Icon

By

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.

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