Paula Bartley's Queen Victoria examines Victorian Britain from the perspective of the Queen. Victoria's personal and political actions are discussed in relation to contemporary shifts in Britain's society, politics and culture, examining to what extent they did - or did not - influence events throughout her reign.

Drawing from contemporary sources, including Queen Victoria's own diaries, as well as the most recent scholarship, the book contextualises Victoria historically by placing her in the centre of an unparalleled period of innovation and reform, in which the...