'My nature', wrote Queen Victoria, 'is too passionate, my emotions too fervent, and I am a person who has to cling to someone in order to find peace and comfort.' To Queen Victoria, the love, attention and protection of a man was all but indispensable. During her long life, there were six men with whom her emotions were romantically involved: her first prime minister, the urbane Lord Melbourne; her husband, the idealistic Prince Albert; her fellow sovereign, the fascinating Napoleon III; her ghillie, the rough-hewn John Brown; another prime minister, the silver-tongued Disraeli; and her Indian servant, the exotic Munshi. The main appeal to Queen Victoria of these six apparently disparate characters was that they were men of distinctive personality: there was something exceptional about each of them. And they all treated her as a woman first, a queen second. By focusing on the Queen's romantic associations and making full use of recently revealed material, Theo Aronson has painted a fresh, intriguing and startlingly different portrait of Queen Victoria. With his talent for narrative and characterization, he has produced one of the most incisive and readable of his many royal biographies. Praise for Heart of a Queen: ’Theo Aronson always writes very thoughtfully and thoroughly. This book gave great insight into the relationships Queen Victoria had with the men in her life’ - Amazon review ‘Interesting angle on Queen Victoria who it seems could be amused! An intriguing read … Makes the Queen seem far less remote than some other portrayals’ - Amazon review Theo Aronson (1929–2003) was a South African-born writer who specialised in biographies of royal and other dynastic or celebrated figures. His warm and relaxed manner made him popular with the subjects of his works and their connections, many of whom granted him personal interviews, while C. P. Snow described his work as ‘bright with intelligence and human wisdom’.

Of all royal lost causes, none has a stronger fascination than that of the Stuart Pretenders to the British throne. For well over a century, four successive Stuart kings laid claim to the crown. The first was James II, deposed in 1688 by his daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange; then came James III the Old Pretender and his son, Bonnie Prince Charlie; finally, there was Henry IX who died in 1807, the last descendant in direct and legitimate line from James II. This book tells the story of these four men, and of their families. It is an account of their public and private lives, their personalities, their relationships with others, and the extraordinary hold which they never ceased to exercise over their adherents. It is a book about people and the twilight of one of the world's most romantic, colourful and ill-fated dynasties. Theo Aronson is the author of over twenty works of royal historical biography, published in eleven languages. Among the widely read are Grandmama of Europe, The King in Love, Napoleon and Josephine and a biography of Princess Margaret.