Lytton Strachey's "Queen Victoria" revolutionised the art of biography by using elements of romantic fiction and melodrama to create a warm, humorous and very human portrait of an iconic figure. We see Victoria as a strong-willed child with a famous temper, as the 18-year-old girl queen, as a monarch, wife, mother and widow. Equally fascinating are the depictions of her relationships: with her governess "precious Lehzen", with Peel, Gladstone and Disraeli, with her beloved Albert and, in later life, her legendary devotion to her Highland servant John Brown, all of which show a different side of her staid, pious image.