The Secret Life of Queen Victoria: Her Majesty's Missing Diaries, Being an Account of Her Hitherto Unknown Travels Through the Island of Jamaica in th

A sly fictional account of the good queen's holiday in Jamaica and her improbable adventures there. Lavishly illustrated with whimsical drawings of the black-clad queen kicking up her heels. A delight. I was intrigued to read an obituary of Routh in the Economist (June 17th, 2008) and wasn't surprised to learn of his reputation as a eternal prankster. He was, it seems, star of the British version of Candid Camera in the UK. In later years he moved to Jamaica and took up painting. The Economist obit described his style thus: "He painted nuns driving racing cars and flying balloons, the pope windsurfing, Mona Lisa naked or smoking. His favourite subject was the aged Queen Victoria, on an imaginary trip to Jamaica in 1871, doing the hula-hoop or the limbo dance, riding a zebra and driving dodgem cars. He could have found a more prosaic explanation for the missing three months of her reign. But he preferred, as ever, the shock of the absurd, and the sense of the detached voyeur intruding on private space."

Endearing illustrations of a tiny, white veiled Queen Victoria cavorting with courtiers the color of midnight accompany a tongue-in-cheek description of a monarch on a risque holiday adventure. This charming picture book is a wonderful addition for anyone who collects memorabilia from Jamaica.