In “The Victorians” (published by Eyre and Spottiswoode) Sir Charles Petrie gives a wonderful picture of a fascinating age, which, though relatively close to ours in time, is fantastically remote in most other respects. The author opens by discussing the nature of Victorianism and then goes on to review brilliantly the life of the Queen and her family. He describes a typical English town in the Victorian era, and takes his readers to Victorian Scotland and Irelands. His social history of the times includes chapters on the use of leisure and on Victorian women. Throughout, the reader is made conscious of pressures causing the radical changes in social conditions for which the Victorian era will always be notable. Three pictures are taken from the book. At top left is a Victorian interior, the Horn Room at Osborne House. At top right a family group shows the Victorian costume of the ’eighties. The picture below shows a Victorian development that is especially well appreciated in New Zealand at present —football at Rugby in 1870.

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 3

In “The Victorians” (published by Eyre and Spottiswoode) Sir Charles Petrie gives a wonderful picture of a fascinating age, which, though relatively close to ours in time, is fantastically remote in most other respects. The author opens by discussing the nature of Victorianism and then goes on to review brilliantly the life of the Queen and her family. He describes a typical English town in the Victorian era, and takes his readers to Victorian Scotland and Irelands. His social history of the times includes chapters on the use of leisure and on Victorian women. Throughout, the reader is made conscious of pressures causing the radical changes in social conditions for which the Victorian era will always be notable. Three pictures are taken from the book. At top left is a Victorian interior, the Horn Room at Osborne House. At top right a family group shows the Victorian costume of the ’eighties. The picture below shows a Victorian development that is especially well appreciated in New Zealand at present —football at Rugby in 1870.