author
Richard Davey
1848–1915
Drawn to courts, costumes, customs, and royal lives, this Victorian journalist-turned-author wrote lively nonfiction that ranged from Ottoman society to the world of Queen Victoria. His books have the brisk, curious feel of a writer who loved turning research into readable stories.
4 Audiobooks
The Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey, and Her Times
by Richard Davey
A History of Mourning
by Richard Davey
Cuba Past and Present
by Richard Davey
About the author
Born in Norfolk in 1848, Richard Patrick Boyle Davey was an English author and journalist. He studied in France and Italy, then moved to New York in 1870, where he worked as an editor for Spirit of the Times. By 1880 he was back in England writing for The Morning Post and building a career as a man of letters.
Davey published widely across history, biography, travel, and social customs. His books include The Sultan and His Subjects, A History of Mourning, Victoria, Queen and Empress, and studies of earlier royal figures such as Mary Tudor and Lady Jane Grey. That range helps explain his appeal: he could move from court history to everyday ritual without losing his sense of color or narrative pace.
Some library records list his dates as 1848–1915, but the biographical source I found gives his death as November 25, 1911, in Venice. Either way, his work remains a vivid example of late Victorian popular history—written for general readers and full of fascination with how people lived, ruled, dressed, and remembered.