|title=Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household
|author=Kate Hubbard
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Biographies old and new of Queen Victoria, her husband and her children are plentiful enough. The vast majority of them are based to some extent on the diaries, memoirs and biographies of some of the most important figures who served her, and Kate Hubbard has put these as well as supplementary archive papers to good use in presenting a thoroughly engrossing account of the royal household throughout the Queen’s lengthy reign. I might almost say ‘lively’, though that could be an exaggeration. The court of Victoria may have been homely after a fashion, but for the most part it was hardly lively.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532239</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robert Sellers
|summary=Although Raffles has gone down in history as the founder of Singapore his roots were far from grand. He had no advantages apart from his own drive and determination and his professional life began with a lowly clerkship with the East india Company, then as large and ungainly as many a government. When he went abroad on behalf of the Company he quickly learned the merits of doing something and asking permission afterwards, not least because of the time taken to contact London and then receive a reply. Even if all went well this could take the best part of a year - by which time the original question could well be academic.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686032</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Christopher Simon Sykes
|title=Hockney: The Biography, Volume 1, 1937-1975
|rating=5
|genre=Art
|summary=As one of the major names of British twentieth century art, David Hockney has always been a larger than life figure. Published to coincide with his 75th birthday, this is the first volume of a biography which tells his story up to 1975.