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Book Review of Ena: Spain's English Queen

Ena: Spain's English Queen
Ena: Spain's English Queen
Author: Gerard Noel
Book Type: Paperback
susyclemens avatar reviewed on + 158 more book reviews


This is a good, solid biography of Victoria Eugenie (Ena), granddaughter of Queen Victoria and wife to King Alfonso XIII of Spain. Gerard Noel is a fine author and I loved his biography of Princess Alice, Queen Victoria's second daughter (and mother of Empress Alexandra of Russia). While ENA is not quite as good a biography as Alice, Queen Victoria's Forgotten Daughter was, it is still a well-written biography. I just wish more of Ena's letters had been used. The reader doesn't really get to KNOW Ena very well. I would have appreciated more insight into her childhood; how she felt about being a carrier of hemophaelia; her relationship with her mother and her brothers (one of whom was killed in WWI a couple of days after the birth of Ena's last child), and more about her relationship with her children. I somehow get the feeling that Mr. Noel was hampered by Ena's remaining family from revealing TOO much. Still, it is a good biography, it just runs a little dry at times.