'Young Victoria' is the first part of 'The Colourful Personal Life of Queen Victoria'. It covers the somewhat bizarre circumstances of Victoria's birth, when there was an undignified race to produce the next heir to the British throne; her lonely childhood under a tough regime which forged her resolute character; and the national adulation when she succeeded as a teenager. It ends with how she fell in love with Albert. 'Young Victoria' focuses on the story of Victoria as a woman - her personal life, the events that formed her character, and the relationships that were important to her. It uses some of her own words from her journal, to help tell the story and is beautifully illustrated throughout with portraits and other memorabilia from the author's collection. This short book is intended to be light-hearted and easy-to-read and should appeal to anyone who likes history, or follows royalty, or is interested in people's personal stories. The overwhelming public image of Queen Victoria is of the elderly queen towards the end of her reign. She is serious and unsmiling, even gloomy; more of a symbol than a person. But Victoria has a colourful life story which is full of drama, intrigue and surprises. She came to the throne as a pretty eighteen-year-old; her public image was very different at the start of her reign than at the end. 'Young Victoria' is followed by two more books - 'Victoria and Albert', covering her marriage to and relationship with Albert, when they changed the image of the royal family and founded a dynasty; and 'Victoria the Widowed Queen', about the long years of her widowhood after Albert's early death, when she became the doyenne of sovereigns and the grandmamma of Europe.