Book Overview

This book is part history and part an account of the daily life of a large aristocratic family with homes in Roxburghshire in Scotland, and in fashionable Eaton Square in London. The story is told principally by the Earl and Countess of Minto, their five sons - a diplomat, MP, soldier, sailor and lawyer - along with the daughters' governess.

Settings and Locations

The action takes place in Britain and across the world, in such places as Brazil and Uruguay, Morocco, China, Cape Province, Russia, Corfu, the Crimea, Bulgaria, Prussia, Italy, Sicily and the Vatican. It includes colourful descriptions of crises and revolutions as well as the consequences of the fortunate marriage made by one of the Elliot daughters to a future British prime minister.

Style and Significance

It treads a careful path between being a piece of historical scholarship and the inside story of the family's life, managing to combine the style and content of letters and diaries from a variety of sources. It is the first biography of the Minto family in the reign of Queen Victoria and one in which both sexes have a part to play. Intricately choreographed, The Victorian Elliots is not formulaic and its readers will enjoy the description it gives of the long Victorian afternoon.