In a dark cupboard of her house, Michaela Reid, the granddaughter-in-law of Sir James Reid, discovered 40 pocket diaries and 31 of his large scrapbooks, as well as some 200 letters and notes from Queen Victoria. From this remarkable unpublished material, the author spent five years writing the life of the man who enjoyed unparalleled intimacy with the Queen during the last years of her life. Although Sir James was never allowed to see her undressed, or approach her with a stethoscope, he was summoned four or five times a day, and quickly became her confidant, privy to all the intimate aspects of her court and family life. It was he who was responsible for persuading Princess Christian to give up her opium addiction; he also had to cope with John Browns alcoholism, as well as informing his unruffled royal employer about her Indian secretarys gonorrhoea. The doctors memoirs have left us an unusually vivid portrait of the Queen, who was eccentric and stubborn, and yet at the same time perceptive, endearing, and warm-hearted.