When Queen Victoria died in 1901, two literary gentlemen took on a monumental task: selecting and editing her vast correspondence. The book they produced would influence perceptions of Victoria for generations to come – but it was not the full story.
Based on unprecedented access to the original archives, Yvonne Ward’s Unsuitable for Publication reveals how key aspects of Victoria’s life were deemed unsuitable for public consumption: her experience of motherhood, her struggle to combine the roles of ruler and wife, and her intimate friendships with other royal European women.
Yvonne Ward will outline how this censorship has affected our entire understanding of the Victorian era, as she unveils the details of her historical detective work.
Lunchbox/Soapbox
Sometimes, there’s nothing better than a good rant. Every Thursday, the Wheeler Centre hosts an old-fashioned Speaker’s Corner in the middle of the city, where writers and thinkers can have their say on the topics that won’t let them sleep at night.
Featuring some of the most compelling voices across just about every sector of human endeavour you can imagine, the themes dominating Lunchbox/Soapbox are proudly idiosyncratic. BYO lunch. Ideas provided.
Featuring
Yvonne Ward
Yvonne M. Ward is the author of Unsuitable for Publication: Editing Queen Victoria (2013, Black Inc.) and a historian with a doctorate from La Trobe University. While researching the book, Yvonne was one of the few people ever to gain access to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.
Her research also took her to the Royal Palace in Brussels, various family archives, libraries, and universities in Britain, Germany, Portugal, and North America.
Yvonne’s work has been highly praised by the eminent historians Sir David Cannadine, Dr David Starkey and Robert Lacey. Her publications include the lead essay in a special edition of The Court Historian, published to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.