 Ask Sir James
Michaela Reid
The life of Sir James Reid, personal physician to Queen Victoria Pages: 344
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978 1 906011 15 4
Area of interest: Britain Date of first publication: 1987
Eland publication date: January 1, 2001
Price: £14.99
In a dark cupboard of her house, Michaela Reid, the granddaughter-in-law of Sir James Reid, discovered forty pocket diaries and thirty-one of his large scrapbooks, as well as some two hundred letters and notes from Queen Victoria. Although Sir James was never allowed to see the queen undressed, she summoned him four or five times a day, and he quickly became her confidant, privy to all the intimate aspects of her court and family life. It was he who was responsible for persuading Princess Christian to give up her opium addiction, as well as coping with John Brown's alcoholism. The doctor's memoirs have left us a vivid portrait of the queen, who was eccentric and stubborn, and yet at the same time perceptive, endearing and warm-hearted
biography of Michaela Reid
extract from Ask Sir James
"A delightful, intimate and absolutely gripping chronicle of royal life and death."
Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sunday Times
"A revealing and touching account of the doctor's relationship with his difficult, demanding but ultimately endearing patient…A real find."
Selina Hastings, Books of the Year, Sunday Telegraph
"An exceptionally well-constructed biography."
Kenneth Rose, Sunday Telegraph
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