The girlhood of Queen Victoria, vol. 1 (of 2) : $b A selection from Her Majesty's diaries between the years 1832 and 1840

These edited excerpts let listeners travel back to the early years of a monarch, when Victoria was still a girl navigating the corridors of Kensington Palace and the wider kingdom. The diary entries, recorded between 1832 and 1840, capture everyday moments—lessons in French, first encounters with opera, and the excitement of a birthday ball—as well as the formal duties that began to shape her sense of duty. The narration feels intimate, as if the young princess is confiding her thoughts directly to a trusted reader, offering a rare glimpse of a private world that would soon become public.

Among the highlights are vivid accounts of long journeys to places like Powis Castle and the seaside town of Ramsgate, where she observed hunting parties, shipwrecks, and the curiosity of travelling gipsy camps. The entries also record the arrival of important guests, the death of close relatives, and the looming political changes that would culminate in her father's passing. Listeners will hear the mixture of youthful wonder and emerging responsibility that defined these formative years, set against the backdrop of mid‑nineteenth‑century Britain.