Encounters with Victoria: Queen Victoria's Reign Through Significant Meetings

by Lucy Worsley (Narrator), Philip Ziegler (Narrator), Kathryn Hughes (Narrator)

In this revealing series, acclaimed historian and Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, Lucy Worsley, explores the reign of Queen Victoria through pivotal figures in her life. We meet 10 key individuals - some well known, others less so - and find out how they influenced the queen, what she thought of them: and what they thought of her.

Beginning with Victoria's prime minister and closest advisor, Lord Melbourne, Worsley goes on to introduce us to the queen's lady-in-waiting, Lady Flora Hastings; the Mayor of Newport, Thomas Philips, governess Louise Lehzen and two popular American entertainers, Tom Thumb and Buffalo Bill - as well as dresser Frieda Arnold; celebrity nurse Florence Nightingale; royal 'favourite' Abdul Karim and Bishop Randall Davidson.

There are also encounters of a different kind, as Lucy Worsley chronicles Victoria's grief at the death of her husband, Prince Albert, and records Victoria's own final days and the crowd of people who gathered as Britain's longest-reigning monarch breathed her last.

Traveling from Kensington Palace to a luxury hotel on the Côte d'Azur, Worsley talks to eminent writers and historians and draws on letters and diaries including the queen's own journal to provide fascinating insight into Victoria's world and those who helped shape it.

1.
ACCESSION DAY AND KINKY LORD M - 1837
With historian Philip Ziegler
2.
POOR LADY FLORA - 1839
With historian Kathryn Hughes
3.
A WOUNDED WELSHMAN - 9 DECEMBER 1839
With historians Les James, Rhian E. Jones and curator Oliver Blackmore
4.
THE GOVERNESS - 3 SEPTEMBER 1842
With Historic Royal Palaces curator Claudia Williams
5.
AMERICAN IDOLS - 1844 AND 1887
With historian Helen Davies and V&A curator and writer Nicholas Rankin
6.
THE DRESSER - FRIEDA ARNOLD, 1854
With Beatrice Behlen, Senior Curator and the Museum of London and Joanna Marschner, Senior Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, Kensington Palace
7.
A NIGHTINGALE AT BALMORAL - FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE - SEPTEMBER 1856
With historian Mark Bostridge
8.
AN ENCOUNTER WITH DEATH - 13 DECEMBER 1861
With historian Helen Rappaport
9.
AN ENCOUNTER WITH DEATH - 13 DECEMBER 1861
With historians Priya Atwal and Shrabani Basu
10.
THE SINKING OF A GREAT SHIP - BISHOP RANDALL DAVIDSON
- 25TH JANUARY 1901
With writer and historian A.N. Wilson

RUNNING TIME ➼ 2hrs.

©2020 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2020 BBC Worldwide Ltd

Genres: Nonfiction, Historical, History

Audible Audio

First published March 19, 2020

About the author

I was born in Reading (not great, but it could have been Slough), studied Ancient and Modern History at New College, Oxford, and I've got a PhD in art history from the University of Sussex.

My first job after leaving college was at a crazy but wonderful historic house called Milton Manor in Oxfordshire. Here I would give guided tours, occasionally feed the llamas, and look for important pieces of paper that my boss Anthony had lost. Soon after that I moved to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, in the lovely job for administrator of the Wind and Watermills Section. Here I helped to organise that celebrated media extravaganza, National Mills Day. I departed for English Heritage in 1997, first as an Assistant Inspector and then as an Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings; Bolsover Castle, Hardwick Old Hall, and Kirby Hall were my favourite properties there. In 2002 I made a brief excursion to Glasgow Museums before coming down to London as Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces in 2003. Yes, this is a brilliant job, but no, you can’t have it. (Bribes have been offered, and refused.)

You might also catch me presenting history films on the old goggle box, giving the talks on the cruise ship Queen Mary 2, or slurping cocktails.

***

Lucy Worsley, OBE (born 18 December 1973) is an English historian, author, curator, and television presenter.

Worsley is Joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces but is best known as a presenter of BBC Television series on historical topics, including Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (2011), Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: A 17th Century History for Girls (2012), The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain (2014), A Very British Romance (2015), Lucy Worsley: Mozart’s London Odyssey (2016), and Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (2016).

-From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Awallens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if this is available as a print book but if you can get the audio version. It's narrated by the author, and she brings in historians and people who studied Queen Victoria and you hear things in their own words. That along with the music and the actors makes this great.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very interesting but not very detailed. Would have loved to have seen more of her early life.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information was interesting, but I knew most of it and the format made me think that they just used the audio from one of Worsley's shows...I felt like I was missing a lot not being able to see where she was.