Jane Ridley (1) (1953–)

I liked the topic (subject) more than I liked the book. It didn't flow. Each page had one or two footnotes -- not a bad thing. But every chapter had a multitude of endnotes. They ranged from 40 -- the fewest -- in Chapter 1, to the winner, Chapter 27 with 158. Most hovered at around 100. With 27 chapters, that means approximately 2700 endnotes. That is a lot of flipping back and forth. Which I never did. Why so many notes? Was this book intended for academics?

What Ridley has done is use quotes to convey the simplest of things. If someone thought a person was "badly dressed" it would be in quotes and you could entertain yourself by flipping to the back of the book to find out which letter located in what archive this quote could be found in. Well documented this book is. But who cares about such minutiae? It seemed to me possible that much of what was included, that was not especially enlightening, was there simply to show how many archives and letters Ridley had read through. You got the sense of a (very long) term paper written by a student who aimed to please the teacher by including the most notes of any student in the class.

Of course you could skip those notes, as I did, but then you also had to deal with a dry narrative and paragraphs that sometimes would start out talking about one thing and end up talking about another.

All in all, it read a bit like a to-do list written in the past tense. That said, I think Bertie is a fascinating character and those were very interesting times and the subject matter made it a worthwhile read.… (altro)

This is a very good and readable biography, written with a genuinely human touch combined with scholarship. As befits a book by a professor of biography, it is also partly a biographical history of George V, focussing particularly on the Gore and Nicholson works, and Pope-Hennessy's work on Queen Mary (Rose's biography of the king gets less attention). Ridley does not shy away from noting George's faults, but she takes a generally sympathetic tone and comes to conclusions about his reign which are generally favourable. Her attitude towards Queen Mary (who is covered extensively in the book, to the extent that it is almost a joint biography) is sometimes a little waspish but mostly positive. The book has a notably realistic take on Prince John. Most politicians do not come off unscathed.

The use of George V British Empire stamps in the endcover design is a nice touch given George's role in building up the Royal collection.

At times there is perhaps a lack of imagination in the view taken of those who served the King, for example in the section at the end dealing with role played by Lord Dawson in the King's final hours.

One criticism which could be levelled at the book is the somewhat casual handling of facts about WWI; for example, the Battle of Passchendaele casualty and death figures are confused. Ridley says at one place that the Russians had left the war in 1917, but in another says March 1918. More generally, subjective judgements about the conduct of the war are included with little or no supporting evidence.

There is also some careless editing – for example, we are told in a throwaway line that Fred Dudley Ward was a 'glovemaker's daughter', making her sound quite working class, and only in a later chapter appears a detailed footnote on her rather different antecedents. Ms Ridley, or perhaps her editor, seems over-fond of the [sic] marking, with it appearing in often unncessary places.

But these are quibbles. This is a book to read, enjoy and retain.… (altro)

A very interesting biography of Edward VII, one that I think tries to achieve a sense of balance between the somewhat dissolute prince of the pre-1892 period, and the one who seems to have snapped to and gotten sensible after the death of his own heir (Albert Victor). One advantage the author appears to have is some recently discovered (or re-discovered) material lurking in the Royal Archives, some of which she found herself. In spite of the mass destruction of large chunks of the archive of Queen Victoria and of Edward VII (something the author goes into in an epilogue), there's a lot of fresh light that can be shown, and I think the result is readable and balanced. (It also helps that I read this right after reading a biography of Albert Victor -- some of the ground covered is the same). I would recommend this.… (altro)