Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter ─ A Biography of Princess Louise

In Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter, Lucinda Hawksley delves into artistic and royal secrets to discover the life of Princess Louise, whose true story has either been lost in history or has been deliberately kept secret. The sixth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had a difficult childhood and troubled adolescence, a world away from the usual perception of the life of a privileged princess.

For such a prominent public figure, much of her life story has been hidden away inside impenetrable walls. What was so scandalous about this princess that her files in the Royal Archives and at her husband's home, Inveraray Castle in Scotland, still need to be locked away? Can we believe, as many do, that Louise in fact gave birth secretly to an illegitimate royal child?

An indomitable woman, Louise lived her life to the full, in a manner that few 21st-century readers would believe possible for a 19th-century woman. She lived through wars and revolutions. As well as being a prominent member of the Aesthetic art world, Princess Louise was a passionate campaigner for women's rights, health reform and education for all. She travelled widely, holidaying in Europe, Africa and North America, and she lived in Canada for five years as the wife of the Governor General.

Here is our best evidence yet that Queen Victoria's many secrets have yet to be fully disclosed.

LUCINDA HAWKSLEY is a writer and lecturer on art history and nineteenth-century history. She is the great, great, great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens and is a patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London.