Books: Study in Black & Brown

QUEEN VICTORIA'S PRIVATE LIFE (224 pp.)—E.E.P. Tisdall—John Day ($4.50).

Evelyn Ernest Percy Tisdall has an improbable hobby for the head of a boarding school for young children: fireworks. He also goes in for fireworks in a literary way with court-scandal biographies, such as Alexandra, Edward VII's Unpredictable Queen, and Marie Fedorovna: Empress of Russia. His latest is about the Queen whose present reputation is about as far removed from gamy gossip as it is possible to get. But in her own lifetime the black-draped Widow of Windsor was openly rumored to be having a Lady Chatterley-like affair with a Scottish gamekeeper, and...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!