By Gabrielle Pantera
“Many people continue to feel that, by re-writing Queen Victoria’s journals and destroying the originals, Beatrice committed an unforgivable act of historical vandalism,” says The Last Princess author Matthew Dennison. “An octogenarian peer, whose family has a long tradition of royal service, began our conversation about the Princess by shouting very crossly at me, ‘That bloody woman!’”.
The Last Princess is about Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore, the last child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Born four years before her father died, she had only a short time with both her parents. Her older sisters got married and escaped (to some degree) their mother’s demanding presence. Queen Victoria was determined that Beatrice would stay by her side unmarried until she died. The Queen did relent on that, but nothing more. What was Beatrice’s life like? Did she have any happiness and joy? Or was it all duty?
“The Last Princess contains significant quantities of new material, including many letters which have not previously been seen or quoted,” says Dennison. “In the first instance, I wrote to the head of every family who had ever held an official position at Queen Victoria’s Court. I also worked extensively from paintings. The portraits Queen Victoria commissioned of her favourite daughter tell us so much about the mother’s perceptions of and feelings about her daughter.”
In his mission to get his book published, Dennison first found his publisher. At a dinner party, a friend said that only one man in London will publish this book: Ion Trewin of Weidenfeld & Nicolson. “I wrote to him and he was discouraging,” says Dennison. “Undaunted, I entered my synopsis for an annual British competition, The Daily Mail Biographers’ Club Prize.”
When his book was short listed for the prize, Dennison went back to Trewin. “He told me to get an agent and suggested his four favourite British agents,” says Dennison. “I chose Georgina Capel of Capel & Land, because she represents a bevy of successful British historians including Andrew Roberts, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Tristram Hunt.
The Last Princess has had seven British editions to date and was a number one bestseller at Hatchards.
Matthew Dennison’s next book, Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia, releases in UK in spring 2010. He and his wife wrote together At Home with Colour, published in Britain and the U.S. by Ryland Peters & Small.
Dennison grew up in Durham in the north of England, an ancient cathedral city built, like Rome, on seven hills. He currently lives mostly in the North Wales countryside.
Rating: 3 stars
The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria’s Youngest Daughter by Matthew Dennison. Trade paperback, 265 pages, St Martin’s Griffin, November 2009, ISBN: 9780312564971
