Matthew Sweet

"Suppose that everything we think we know about the Victorians is wrong." So begins Inventing the Victorians by Matthew Sweet, a compact and mind-bending whirlwind tour through the soul of the nineteenth century, and a round debunking of our assumptions about it. The Victorians have been victims of the "the enormous condescension of posterity," in the historian E. P. Thompson's phrase. Locked in the drawing room, theirs was an age when, supposedly,...

The story begins with an eerie midnight encounter between artist Walter Hartright and a ghostly woman dressed all in white who seems desperate to share a dark secret. The next day Hartright, engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie and her half sister, tells his pupils about the strange events of the previous evening. Determined to learn all they can about the mysterious woman in white, the three soon find themselves drawn into a...

Four more stories featuring the investigators of infernal incidents, with an extra hour of behind the scenes interviews. Dead Men's Tales, by Justin Richards A friend from the past returns to warn Jago and Litefoot of a threat to the future. Time breaks are appearing in Victorian London, but first Leela must help solve the mystery of the Wet Men - terrifying creatures that are rising from the River Thames… The Man at the End of the Garden, by Matthew...

We think of Queen Victoria as the dry, weary matron in black who grumbles, "We are not amused," but in private life, Victoria was passionate, lively, full of surprises, and a sexual dynamo. Welcome to the Secret Life of Queen Victoria.