Jane Ridley.
JANE RIDLEY: EDWARD VII BIOGRAPHY
BERTIE: A LIVE OF EDWARD VII (2012)
Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize.
A Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Spectator and Evening Standard, Book of the Year.
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Edward VII (born 1841) was he second child and oldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In 1863 he married Pricess Alexandra of Denmark. The marriage produced six children, including George V. As Prince of Wales he represented the UK on ceremonal visits to North America and India. However his playboy reputation strained his relationship with his mother. Edward VII became monarch in 1901, on the death of his mother. He ruled for only nine years, dying in 1910. His reign saw the modernisation of the British naval fleet, and the re-structuring of the British Army after the Boer War.
Antonia Fraser wrote of Jane Ridley’s biography in the Sunday Telegraph: ‘Paints the story of Edward VII and his long, hectic life as Prince of Wales in vivid colours: no scandal is left unturned, and yet the depth and authenticity of the research make it clear that this is a serious, even magesterial work’. The Evening Standard wrote: ‘Hugely entertaining from first page to last... It is also scholarly and revealing’.
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Jane Ridley (born 1953) is Professor of Modern History at the University of Buckingham. In addition to her biography of Edward VII, she has written biographies of the architect Edwin Lutyens, the young Disraeli, Queen Victoria, and George V. The daughter of Conservative cabinet minister Nicholas Ridley, she was educatd at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, where she obtained a first class degree in history.
