Henry and Mary Ponsonby: Life at the Court of Queen Victoria

The popularity of any monarchy shows peaks and troughs. But when Henry Ponsonby became Queen Victoria’s private secretary, her popular image was in such hopeless disarray that even Victoria herself came increasingly under attack. As her private secretary and protector at large, Ponsonby realized that the court had failed to adjust to a shift in the media and political sentiment. Dramatically rewriting the royal message as her most intimate adviser, his ironic take on the monarchy left it in its strongest ever position when he died fifteen years later. This entertaining biography paints a seldom seen, intimate picture of the inner workings of the monarchy. William Kuhn received unparalleled access to the Royal Archives and those of the Ponsonby family. While insider material on the monarchy is hard to come by, Henry and Mary Ponsonby wrote to each other regularly and wittily about the day to day events at the court, and its strategy for survival. Their vivid letters deal with such timeless issues that they could have been written by the Queen’s advisers today.