Why read Shooting Victoria?

Book cover of Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy

Book description

'It is worth being shot at to see how much one is loved.' - Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria was attacked an astonishing eight times during her sixty-three year reign.

Victoria's would-be assassins succeeded in changing the course of British history; whose penal system, legal system and policing would never be…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Shooting Victoria as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Patrice McDonough

Author

The author’s unusual lens made this a captivating history. Murphy examines Victoria’s reign through the multiple attempts on the queen’s life. While the title isn’t entirely accurate (one would-be assassin used a walking stick rather than a gun), Murphy makes a persuasive case for the monarchy’s “rebirth.”

Defying death helped the queen survive some rough patches in her reign. Through eight attempts to kill her, the queen modeled “keep calm and carry on” in the best British tradition, and the public adored her pluck. After the final gunman failed to murder the queen, the aging Victoria said, “It is worth…

From Patrice's list on offbeat books about the Victorian Era.