When we think of Queen Victoria, whose reign eclipsed that of every British king and queen before her, we imagine the Widow of Windsor, reclusive in her palace, draped in permanent mourning for her beloved husband, Albert, the Prince Consort, who died in 1861. But this book takes the reader on a journey that starts before her marriage, before she came to be seen as the static icon of the age that bears her name. From her isolated childhood at Kensington Palace, where her daily life was controlled by a man who plotted to one day seize power through her, Victoria emerged shortly after her 18th...

Katherine of Aragon: abandoned woman. Anne Boleyn: ambitious upstart. Jane Seymour: virtuous mother. Anne of Cleves: Flanders Mare. Katherine Howard: adulterous whore. Katherine Parr: the one that got away. These are our lingering historical afterimages of the six women who married Henry VIII over the course of his thirty-six-year reign. At the age of 18, Henry succeeded to the English throne and married the Spanish princess who had briefly been the wife of his brother Arthur. Katherine of Aragon was both a virgin and a widow when the prince died at the age of fifteen, enabling Henry to marry...

The tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, triggered an unprecedented worldwide outpouring of grief from the public that adored her ever since she was first identified as the girlfriend of the Prince of Wales in 1981. Ever since August 31, 1997, people have struggled to account for the depth of the impact she seemed to have on people's hearts and minds. First the little girl who felt that she had disappointed her family by not being a boy, then the schoolgirl who preferred pranks to studying, then the shy kindergarten teacher who won the heart of Prince Charles, Diana's anonymity ended...