Queen Victoria
How cartomania captivated even Queen Victoria
The craze for photographic cartes de visite that swept Victorian Britain was further boosted by the Queen’s own enthusiasm for the format
Distrust and resentment have plagued Anglo-Russian relations for centuries
On a visit to England in 1556, Ivan the Terrible’s envoy alienated Londoners with his extreme suspicions – and lurid insults have been exchanged ever since
The naming of cats
It took a long time for cats to gain the same serious status as dogs, but by the 18th century they were starting to have personalities, says Kathryn Hughes
After Queen Victoria, the flood
Alwyn Turner draws on popular culture to show how violent protest and unrest followed the old queen’s death, making nonsense of the fabled Edwardian ‘golden summer’
America's touching tributes to the Queen (1901)
The United States hasn’t always reacted rather snidely to the death of the British monarch. Below is The Spectator’s lead…
Stop tearing down controversial statues, says British-Guyanan artist Hew Locke
Rather than tearing statues down, Hew Locke believes in reworking them to highlight their place in our imperial history. Stuart Jeffries speaks to him
Should the Duke of Windsor have been tried for treason?
In Traitor King, Andrew Lownie shows how the Duke of Windsor — the former Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936…
Bigamists, lunatics and adventurers: the raucous world of 19th century British music
The world of 19th-century British music was raucous, but are there any masterpieces waiting to be rediscovered? wonders Richard Bratby
A terrific two-hander that belongs at the National: RSC's Kunene and the King reviewed
The Gift is three plays in one. It opens in a blindingly white Victorian parlour where a posh lady, Sarah,…
Nothing can beat the romance of luxury train travel between the wars
There may never have been a murder on the real Orient Express, but otherwise Agatha Christie’s depiction of luxury train…
What Mary Wollstonecraft writes about motherhood is still so relevant
Walking into Fingal’s Cave, after scrambling across the rocks to reach it from the landing stage where the boat from…
Almost triumphs over the absurdity of its premise: Northern Ballet’s Victoria reviewed
Blame Kenneth MacMillan. The great Royal Ballet choreographer of the 1960s, 70s and 80s was convinced that narrative dance could…
Stitches in time
When Martha Ann Ricks was 76 she travelled from her home in Liberia to London to meet Queen Victoria. The…
Laurence Oliphant: oddest of Victorian oddballs
As an erstwhile obituarist, I pity the poor hack who had to write up the life of Laurence Oliphant —…
Sexual assault, chamber-pot etiquette, and other problems of early rail travel
Simon Bradley dates the demise of the on-board meal service to 1962, when Pullman services no longer offered croutons with…
Queen Victoria was born to be a novelist — this book proves it
A wonderfully vivid school story has surfaced written by Queen Victoria as a child. The monarch was clearly a sensational novelist manqué, says Philip Hensher
What’s wrong with the Victoria Cross
‘It is the task of a Patton or a Napoleon to persuade soldiers that bits of ribbon are intrinsically valuable.…
How long is it since anniversaries stopped being measured in years?
‘You must promise to be with us for our silver wedding D.V. which will be in four years,’ wrote Queen…
The first Lord Dufferin: the eclipse of a most eminent Victorian
The first Marquess of Dufferin and Ava is largely forgotten today — rotten luck for the great diplomat of the…
Sculpture Victorious at Tate Britain reviewed: entertainingly barmy
In the centre of the new exhibition Sculpture Victorious at Tate Britain there is a huge white elephant. The beast…
Sophia Duleep Singh: from socialite to socialist
Princess Sophia Alexandrovna Duleep Singh (1876–1948) had a heritage as confusing as her name. Her father was a deposed Indian…
Politics as an aphrodisiac: the secret of the Disraelis’ happy marriage
The long, happy and unlikely marriage of the great Conservative leader Disraeli and his wife Mary Anne, 12 years his…
Is there anything left to say about Queen Victoria? A.N. Wilson has found plenty
A new, revisionist biography argues that it was only after her husband’s death that Queen Victoria found her true self. Jane Ridley is impressed
A.N. Wilson's diary: The book that made me a writer – and the pushchair that made me an old git
Like many inward-looking children, I always doodled stories and poems. Knowing one wanted to be a writer is a different…
Queen Victoria with the naughty bits put back
Queen Victoria was the inventor of official royal biography. It was she who commissioned the monumental five-volume life of Prince…
