‘Atheism is on the rise’: Richard Hartley-Parkinson, ‘Divine disintervention: Archbishop of Canterbury admits his doubts about God’s existence’, Metro, 18 September 2014.
‘the process by which faith is deepened’: Sally Fitzgerald (ed.), The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1979, p.353.
‘Please pray specially for me that I may not spoil His work’: Brian Kolodiejchuk (ed)., Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Revealing Private Writings of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Rider, London, 2008, p.149.
‘I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble’: Benjamin Franklin and William Temple Franklin, The Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin, Comprising a Series of Letters on Miscellaneous, Litarary [sic], and Political Subjects: Written Between the Years 1753 and 1790; Illustrating the Memoirs of His Public and Private Life, and Developing the Secret History of His Political Transactions and Negociations [sic], Now First Published from the Originals, vol.1, H. Colburn, United States, 1817, p.278.
‘To have doubted one’s own first principles’: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., ‘Ideals and Doubts’, Illinois Law Review, 1915, vol.10, no.3.
‘follow knowledge like a sinking star’: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ‘Ulysses’, in W.E. Williams (ed.), Tennyson, Penguin Books, London, 1986, p.58.
Coda: Floating in the Bardo
‘The first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know’: Mary Oliver, ‘Low Tide’, Amicus Journal, winter 1997, vol.18, no.4, pp.32–43.
‘The trivia of everyday life falls away’: Conversations, ABC Radio National, 13 December 2017.
‘If you break your neck . . . then you’ve got a problem’: Robert Fulghum, Uh-Oh — Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refridgerator Door, Ivy Books, Random House, New York, 1993, p.146.
‘Angel’s Glow’: James Byrne, ‘Photorhabdus luminescens: The Angel’s Glow’, The Naked Scientists website, 25 February 2011.
‘absolutely unmixed attention is prayer’: Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, Routledge, London and New York, 2004, p.117.
‘When tragedy or misfortune comes our way’: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium, Riverhead Books, New York, 1999, p.139.
‘the rarest and purest form of generosity’: Miklos Vetö, The Religious Metaphysics of Simone Weil, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 1994, p.45.
‘How can you not want to be out there amongst all this stuff?’: Conversations, ABC Radio National, 23 November 2017.
Mary Oliver, ‘The Summer Day’: From House of Light by Mary Oliver, published by Beacon Press, Boston, © Mary Oliver, used herewith by permission of the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency, Inc.
three-quarters of all sea creatures have ‘bioluminescence capability’: Séverine Martini and Steven H.D. Haddock, ‘Quantification of bioluminescence from the surface to the deep sea demonstrates its predominance as an ecological trait’, Scientific Reports, 2017, vol.7, no.45750.
About the Author
JULIA BAIRD is a globally renowned author and award-winning journalist. She hosts The Drum on ABC TV and writes columns for The New York Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. Her first book, Media Tarts, was based on her history PhD about the portrayal of female politicians. After moving to the United States to take up a fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School, she became a columnist and senior editor at Newsweek in New York. Julia’s biography of Queen Victoria was published in several countries to critical acclaim and was one of The New York Times’ top ten books of 2016. She lives near the sea with two children, a tyrannical cat and an abnormally large dog.
Praise for Victoria
‘Julia Baird’s exquisitely wrought and meticulously researched biography brushes the dusty myth off this extraordinary monarch . . . The book thrums with authority.’ The New York Times Book Review
‘Baird nails Victoria, with sympathy but not uncritically. There can be no higher praise.’ The Sydney Morning Herald
‘Monumental . . . [An] important and at times enthralling study.’ Australian Book Review
‘It . . . will forever change the way you see the world, and in particular the role of women who live in it.’ Caroline Overington, The Australian
‘A triumph. Genuinely fresh insights into one of history’s most intriguing figures, impeccably researched and beautifully written.’ Leigh Sales, ABC TV anchor
‘It’s Baird’s gift as a storyteller, her knack for human detail and the idiosyncrasies of the era, that make this book so superb . . . An extraordinary story, told with brilliance and tenderness by one of Australia’s most perceptive writers.’ Annabel Crabb
‘A thoroughly contemporary biography . . . Baird brings the figure of Victoria richly to life, with all her contradictions . . . Lively, intelligent.’ Books+Publishing
‘A stunning achievement . . . a remarkably lucid, endlessly engaging account of Queen Victoria’s life and rule.’ Amanda Foreman, author of the bestselling Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and the chair of the judging panel for the 2016 Man Booker Prize
‘Frisky, adventurous . . . exhilarating.’ Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Copyright
Fourth Estate
an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2020
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
Copyright © Julia Baird 2020
The right of Julia Baird to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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