Life in the Royal Household

Serving Victoria

A sparkling portrait of the court of Queen Victoria, seen through the lives of her household using never-seen-before diaries and letters. 
 
Shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Biography Award

Entertaining…compellingly vivid... A fine examination of both the bizarre and the banal in the domestic machinery of Victoria's court

The rhythm of court life at Windsor or Balmoral is the backdrop to a rich human drama... [Hubbard's] achievement is to enter a sealed world, ruled by repetition, and make it compelling

Having plundered a rich vein of fascinating and often new information, Hubbard shows that serving Victoria was no doddle

An astonishing, lively and amusing account of the opinionated Queen and her odd entourage

Finely tuned… Hubbard integrates these strands of personnel and personalities through her small group of histories, which she records so skillfully that the excellence of her prose and the lucidity of her insight are taken for granted

After leaving Oxford University Kate Hubbard worked variously as a researcher, a teacher, a book reviewer and a publisher's reader. She currently works as a freelance editor. Her first book, A Material Girl: Bess of Hardwick 1527-1608, was published in 2001, followed by two children's books - biographies of Charlotte Bronte and Queen Victoria. Her most recent book, Rubies in the Snow, is the fictionalised diary of Anastasia Romanov, youngest daughter of Russia's last Tsar. Kate divides her time between London and Dorset.

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birth, read this sparkling portrait of her court, seen through the lives of her household. 
 
‘Eye-opening and thoroughly engaging’ Sunday Times 
 
During the sixty-three years of her reign, Queen Victoria gathered around her a household dedicated to her service. By following their lives - from governess to maid-of-honour, chaplain to personal physician - Serving Victoria offers a unique insight into the Victorian court with all its frustrations and absurdities. 
 
 Sitting squarely at its centre is Victoria, and through the eyes of her household we see a Queen who is more vulnerable, more emotional, more selfish and more comical than is generally supposed. A woman who was prone to fits of giggles, who wept easily and often, who gobbled her food and shrank from confrontation, while insisting on controlling the lives of those around her. Serving Victoria provides a glimpse of what it meant and what it was like to serve the Queen. 
 
 Shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Biography Award

Kate Hubbard

It's high time for a new biography of this extraordinary woman, who was a cross between Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Thackeray's Becky Sharp... Devices and Desires is fluently written and full of vivid colour and detail... This book will take its place rightly as the definitive biography of Bess of Hardwick

Part biography and part building history, considering along the way the erection of Elizabethan prodigy houses, such as Longleat, Theobalds, Wollaton, and, above all, Bess's Hardwick New Hall. It is in here that we can still see Bess's wit, ambition, creativity and vast wealth... Meticulous... A work of considerable scholarship

Carefully researched and smartly written... The story of building in the 16th century is an elegant way into the ambitions and preoccupations of Bess's world.... The book's true stars are the buildings and one is grateful to its author for reminding us how wonderful they were

A dynamic portrait of Bess's life... Hubbard makes creative use of often-overlooked sources, such as lists of purchases, to flesh out Bess's daily life and surroundings, and how she sought to shape both. The fascinating relationship between Bess's biography and her building projects is also brought to the fore. Bess of Hardwick emerges from Devices and Desires as a fascinating and influential woman

An enjoyable retelling of Bess’s long and remarkable life…and her astonishing impulse to build

A fascinating portrait of the second most powerful female character in Elizabethan England, and a wonderfully detailed account of the making of its historic houses

Rebecca Fraser, author of The Mayflower Generation

Excellent. The approach taken is innovative, taking the reader back into the world of Bess of Hardwick, who was arguably the Elizabethan period's greatest builder. Kate Hubbard clearly sets Bess and her building works in the context of the period and her peers, providing the most nuanced account of her life to date

Elizabeth Norton, author of The Lives of Tudor Women

A compelling study… Hubbard illuminates the creative process behind the construction of [Bess’s] architectural masterpieces

Bess of Hardwick and the Building of Elizabethan England

‘The definitive biography’ Roy Strong 
 
The remarkable story of Bess of Hardwick, her ascent through Elizabethan society and the houses she built that shaped British architectural history. 
 
Born in 1521, Bess of Hardwick, businesswoman, money-lender and property tycoon, lived an astonishing eighty-seven years. Through canny choices, four husbands and a will of steel she rose from country squire’s daughter to Dowager Countess, establishing herself as one of the richest and most powerful women in England, second only to Queen Elizabeth. 
 
Bess forged her way not merely by judicious marriage, but by shrewd exploitation of whatever assets each marriage brought. Wealth took concrete form in her passion for building and she oversaw every stage of the construction of her four houses including Hardwick New Hall, her sole surviving building, which stands as a celebration of one woman’s triumphant progress through Elizabethan England. 
 
‘A dynamic portrait of Bess's life...’ BBC History Magazine

Kate Hubbard

Praise for Devices and Desires

It's high time for a new biography of this extraordinary woman, who was a cross between Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Thackeray's Becky Sharp... Devices and Desires is fluently written and full of vivid colou ...

Part biography and part building history, considering along the way the erection of Elizabethan prodigy houses, such as Longleat, Theobalds, Wollaton, and, above all, Bess's Hardwick New Hall. It is in here that we ...

Carefully researched and smartly written... The story of building in the 16th century is an elegant way into the ambitions and preoccupations of Bess's world.... The book's true stars are the buildings ...

It's high time for a new biography of this extraordinary woman, who was a cross between Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Thackeray's Becky Sharp... Devices and Desires is fluently written and full of vivid colou ...

Part biography and part building history, considering along the way the erection of Elizabethan prodigy houses, such as Longleat, Theobalds, Wollaton, and, above all, Bess's Hardwick New Hall. It is in here that we ...

Carefully researched and smartly written... The story of building in the 16th century is an elegant way into the ambitions and preoccupations of Bess's world.... The book's true stars are the buildings ...

It's high time for a new biography of this extraordinary woman, who was a cross between Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Thackeray's Becky Sharp... Devices and Desires is fluently written and full of vivid colou ...

Part biography and part building history, considering along the way the erection of Elizabethan prodigy houses, such as Longleat, Theobalds, Wollaton, and, above all, Bess's Hardwick New Hall. It is in here that we ...

Carefully researched and smartly written... The story of building in the 16th century is an elegant way into the ambitions and preoccupations of Bess's world.... The book's true stars are the buildings ...

Books by Kate Hubbard

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