The Captive of Kensington Palace

Nov 28, 2025 1:00 AM

Author:Jean Plaidy

The first in Jean Plaidy's captivating Victorian series.

The young Princess Victoria, strictly confined within the boundaries of Kensington Palace, is being moulded for her awesome future as Queen of England. Surrounded by her dolls and closely guarded by her domineering mother and faithful governess, she slowly becomes aware of the bitter conflicts that surround her.

The jealous and scheming Duke of Cumberland is a constant threat to her rightful accession . . . her mother's sinister friend, Sir John Conroy, makes her uneasy . . . and the bickering between her mother and the king seems neverending.

Growing up is proving difficult for the princess. She longs for her eighteenth birthday when at last she will be free to rule the nation as she pleases and to re-acquaint herself with the gallant Prince Albert.

Reviews

Jean Plaidy doesn't just write the history, she makes it come alive.

—— Julia Moffat, RNA

These books are page-turners; they offer a wonderful way to learn about history, their heroines are smart, strong and in control of their destinies and their stories will remain with you for ever...They are a celebration of women's spirit throughout history.

—— Daily Express

Full-blooded, dramatic, exciting

—— Observer

Outstanding

—— Vanity Fair

Jean Plaidy conveys the texture of various patches of the past with such rich complexity

—— Guardian

Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama

—— New York Times

One of the country's most widely read novelists

—— Sunday Times

A huge achievement, as deep as it is wide, this is a book like no other of these times

—— Nuala O'Faolain

Redemption Falls is trauma incarnate, but its effect is both compassionate and luminous

—— TLS

Books of this quality demand to be reread to reveal more of their complexities and layers of meaning. Redemption Falls would reward this on the level of its rich textures of language alone

—— Sunday Herald

One of the author's most affecting, honest and brilliant works. It is a searingly well written piece by a ridiculously underrated novelist

—— Sunday Telegraph

Entertaining... Jacobson's prose is incisive and off-kilter, abrasive and often hilarious

—— The Times

Felix Quinn, the narrator of the book...explains it beautifully - and this is a very good novel... Feeling unsafe makes him feel alive. And loss, of course, is the wellspring of good storytelling

—— Evening Standard

The Act of Love is an ambitious and at times extremely uncomfortable novel

—— The Telegraph

It is an almost frighteningly brilliant achievement. Why did the Booker judges not recognise it?

—— The Guardian

This is a very good novel

—— Scotsman

Jacobson's 10th novel is a moving, thought-provoking and darkly witty story of desire and love

—— Irish Times

Trollope explores, with infinite delicacy, the strands that make a family

—— Daily Express

An absorbing contemporary novel from one of our most perceptive writers

—— You Magazine

Trollope has created a fount of bitchy tension which she manipulates with great skill

—— Evening Standard

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