A major new biography marking the centenary of Queen Victoria's death, by the uncrowned king of historical biographers. Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 and died in 1901 at the age of nearly eighty-two. For more than sixty years she presided over twenty governments, and a country undergoing profound economic, social and political change. In Queen Victoria: A Personal History we see Victoria develop from the young, inexperienced Queen in thrall to the charming, cynical and devoted Melbourne, to the intimidating matriarch who so terrified members of her household that they were once seen scurrying away across the lawn at Sandringham, crying 'The Queen! The Queen!' when she appeared unexpectedly at the garden door. Victoria and her ministers are brought vividly to life, as are all those whom the Queen came to know, to love, dislike, revere or denigrate, from her mother's friend Sir John Conroy to her own adored husband, Prince Albert, who patiently endured her petulant tantrums. Based on a wide variety of sources, including the Queen's voluminous correspondence and intimate journals -- some of which have never been printed before -- Christopher Hibbert's biography is an endlessly entertaining and persuasive portrait of one of the most remarkable women of her time.