Queen Victoria's Granddaughters 1860-1918

I found this book to be well written and extremely interesting. Since there were 22 granddaughters, Ms Croft does a great job of keeping them all straight in the reader's mind. I commend her for her research and writing skill as well as for using the nicknames used within the family for keeping them all straight. In order to tell the story of the granddaughters, the author has to pretty well include a biological sketch of the Queen's children and their mates as well as the grandsons. Of course the mates of the grandchildren and some of their children are included as well, but the primary emphasis is on the granddaughters. In other words, here we have a pretty comprehensive history of the royal family of 3 generations. It is all written in an interesting, easy to understand, style. We find Victoria to have been a loving, hands-on grandmother, especially to those of her granddaughters who lost their mothers at early ages. Especially precious to her was Alix, who became the ill-fated Tsarina of Russia, who was murdered by the Communists in 1917 together with her husband and children. King George V denied the family asylum fearing that to give protection to the Tsar would place his own throne in danger. The horrific result was quite sobering to him as to all the rest of the world. A more sympathetic treatment was given to Willy, Victoria's first grandchild, who became the Kaiser Wilhelm II, than I have seen in other accounts. This is also the only place where I have read that Victoria died in the arms of Willy. I have read in other places that some of her daughters tried to keep Willy from the sick room. For me the only confusing parts were when Ms Croft succumbed to the tendency of other writers to give the characters their titles instead of their nicknames. This only happened a few times. On one occasion she started talking about Queen Marie, and I had to do quite a bit of backtracking before I realized that this was the woman called Missy before she became a Queen. Evidently she couldn't say Queen Missy. Backtracking is not easy when reading from a Kindle, and I was happy that at the beginning of each chapter, a list of the principal characters mentioned in the chapter were listed together with their relationships to one another. All in all, I would say that this was a very superior and well-written and researched book.

This is a fascinating book and quite unique in the way it combines the stories of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters and creates a more complete picture of the extended family than anything I have read on the subject before. The comparisons of their marriages, spirituality, education and characters are very interesting, and the appendices at the end of the book, covering such subjects as thoughts on the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s mourning and her choice of reading, as well as an interesting insight into the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, make this an all round intriguing read. Since there are so many central characters (all 22 of Victoria’s granddaughters!) it is very helpful that there is a brief who’s who of who appears in each chapter, at the beginning of each chapter. I also like the way that the author manages to keep the book moving in a chronological fashion while combining the different aspects of the granddaughters’ lives. It was good to see that this didn’t concentrate solely on the more famous of the granddaughters but included all of them in a way that shows psychological understanding, without being pedantic, and a deep respect for these people. One thing I have noticed in all the books by this author, is the way that she goes beneath the surface and seeks to understand her characters rather than simply re-hashing stories about them. I have enjoyed her novels immensely and am glad that she has also produced this non-fiction book.Filled with interesting anecdotes and written in a way that shows a deep understanding of these people, this would be a great reference book for anyone wanting to find out more about Queen Victoria’s family, and is also a great read!

Queen Victoria's Granddaughters was a very interesting book, written in an easy-to-read manner. As I am not a follower of the British Royal family, I would have liked to have a family tree layout indicating the queen, her children, grandchildren (sons included) and whom they married to which to refer to at perhaps the front of the book, as it gets quite confusing sometimes. There were also spelling and grammatical errors which should have been picked up by the editor. Overall, however, very interesting

This is a well written history of the lives of the grandchildren of England's Queen Victoria. I enjoyed the author's writing style just as much as the facts she presented. There are so many individuals to follow in this book that I found myself struggling to remember who was who, which child of the queen was the parent of each grandchild, etc. The author must have realized that readers would encounter difficultly coping with the complexity of her subject matter, because she began each chapter with a short outline of the family members the chapter would cover. I decided to relax and enjoy the stories themselves, and not worry about the fine details of relationship. I am impressed at the extent of the influence of Queen Victoria in her day, even more so by the spread of her gene pool through the many ruling houses of Europe and further east. This book also provides one of the most concise, understandable descriptions of the factors that led up to WWI and the Russian revolution. There was great sadness in the lives and deaths of many offspring of Queen Victoria, outweighing the compensatory benefits of wealth and position. Thanks to this book, I now feel much better informed about these intriguing people and their contributions to history.

Have read a few books on Victoria's children but did not know a lot about her extended family.The book is very interesting and really brings her family to life, all the arguments and troubles they had, and traumas.Written in an easy to read way, one of the most interesting books I have read. Got very absorbed, and looked forward to going to bed to read it! Highly recommended.

I found this book to be a bit noting at first, but it soon gathered momentum and I couldn’t put it down. I would have liked some photos though - it was sometimes quite difficult to recall who was who, especially with all of the “Victoria’s” and Grand Dukes, etc. The part about the Romanovs was particularly interesting and I read things that I hadn’t read before, despite having enjoyed many, many books on the subject.Recommended but missing photos

Well written, with lots of references to original sources and correspondence, A useful reminder of the 'players' at the start of each chapter, which I found very helpful as the history unfolds. An eloquent writing style - very easy to read and understand.

I found the book very detailed and interesting. With so many members of the extended Royal Family, the similarity of names can be confusing. No doubt this is why they were mostly known by their nicknames. Each member has her own chapter, although being family they all flit all over the place in the book. Each chapter, however, starts off with a list of the chapter's 'cast' as it were, and this is very helpful for my memory at least. I am sure it will also provide useful reference for many years.Congrats to Ms Croft for all the research and effort, which has had to be done, to produce a book on what I consider to be a very difficult subject.

A highly interesting and easy to read account of the descendents of Queen Victoria. We learn of their childhoods, hopes and dreams - and for many of them, of their tragedies. Sadly, by Victoria's insistence on most of her grandchildren marrying each other and spreading across Europe, rather than following her late husband's advice of introducing "strong dark blood" into the family line, this allowed various illnesses to be passed onto the extended family - the most damaging being the haemophilia which wrecked such serious political consequences on the Russian Imperial family. Sometimes it is hard to keep up with the various characters - there are so many Princesses, Grand Dukes and so on with variations of the same names but the author has handily provided a guide to who is who at the beginning of each chapter. However, for me, the personalities of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Alice and her daughters - especially Victoria and Ella - stand out more than any of the others in the book (by the way, this the line Prince Philip is descended from). Their resiliance and faith, their response to adversity is truely awe-inspiring. Recommended.

There are a couple of weird reviews on this book which question the historical facts given. The book is written in a novelistic, very readable, style but the historical facts are well-researched and accurate. The author is entitled to take a personal point of view! Both this and the "grandsons" book obviously cover the same period, but the author manages to tell each event from a slightly different angle, so it's not too repetitive. If you read this too fast the names and titles become a blur.

This book is amazing, but thank goodness the author put a "crib" of nicknames at the beginning of each chapter, otherwise it would be unreadable - hence the 4 stars. The Romanov tragedy is well-told, and it was really interesting to know what happened to all the cousins in the end. Recommended.

It was with trepidation that I bought this book., I am not a great reader of history , but I enjoyed reading this from the start.The fact that it was written in small chapters made it so much more interesting, and although I did know a reasonable amount about the Victorian Royal family I found members I had not heard of before.It was a pity in such a large family that the same names were given repeatedly which I did find a bit confusing.The Russian family and its tragic end was particularly well written.I would reccomend this book to every one with the slightest interest in the Royal family it is well worth reading, I was sorry when it came to an end.

A comprehensive account of the lives of Queen Victoria's Granddaughters, their marriages and children. Inspite of wealth and advantages some of them led sad lives and died horribly. They married all over Europe but became separated by wars.

A well thought out approach to the granddaughters of Queen Victoria, where each chapter lists a summary of the particular family each one belongs to before detailing events of the girls lives. Appears odd at times but on hindsight is effective as so many of them were christened with the same name 'Victoria,' so it is easy to be confused if not familiar already with their place in history.I had no trouble finishing this work which I found highly readable. Upon reflection the curse of haemophilia passed on from the Queen was just one of the deciding points for the extinction of most of the European royalty along with other factors of course, the time being ripe for Revolution and change. A good read.

Although I love historical novels I don't normally read more factual books. This is really quite easy to read and at the beginning of each chapter there's a little reminder of whose who in the following chapter. I didn't realise how far reaching Queen Victoria's family was until reading this book. It is also quite amazing how ill a lot of them were. Very enlightening.

Loved this book - very informatives it starts with her granddaughters but goes through various wars including the assignation of the Tsar and his family and the Tsarina's association with Ruisputin. I have read many books on Queen Victoria and her family but this one is probably one of the most informative and found information that I did not already know!

An interesting and informative read, similar to other books about Queen Victoria's children. It makes a change to focus on the women of the families and their role in major events of the 19th and 20th centuries. Each chapter included a list of the people covered in that chapter and their relationships, which was very helpful, because there were a lot of them, often with similar names. If you enjoyed Queen Victoria's Children or A Hessian Tapestry you will enjoy this.

I thought that I knew a fair bit about Victoria and her descendants, but this well presented book opened my eyes. At the top of each chapter is a simple family tree of each branch to be examined and this helped greatly, otherwise I'd have been completely lost.My interest was held all the way through - no skipping pages here!AliceB

I would have liked to see a family tree that I could refer to for easier grasp of all the various families.I also found that the proof reading was not up to standard......at least half a dozen minor mistakes.I would also have liked to see pictures of the princesses, husbands and families.Apart from that I found the book fascinating, even when I was confused by the intricate relationships.