D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A F E E D A N D W O M E N ’ S H E A LT H C E L E B R AT E D T H E “ R U N 1 0 F E E D 1 0 ” E V E N T
Andrew Bartsch and Emily Wendel
her approval. Once there, she was fine. She could briefly put aside the child who wanted everything her way but, more often than not, she expected complete devotion and attention from those who “served” her. For me, it was stunning to learn that the doctor never actually saw her body unclothed in all of the decades that he served her until she died. She wasn’t charming, although there was something charming about her behavior. The part of the book where her adored Munshi, her personal Indian servant who had spent years abusing his power, had to be discharged serves as 40 QUEST
Laura Frerer-Schmidt and Michele Promaulayko
Fred DeVito and Kim Kiernan
an excellent document of the vagaries of personal political power in the presence of another kind of power, the power to attract. Victoria was crazy about this particular member of her household. She studied Hindustani daily with him, and spent hours alone with him. In his youth he was very handsome, as he was at a late age; Victoria was dazzled by the male animal. There were rumors that she and Munshi had a “thing” going on. True or not, it is immaterial to the drama; she was crazy about him. To him, she dispensed power. Whereupon the prime minister might have
Lauren Bush Lauren and Sharon Bush
Tessa Howard and Claire Stephens
to go through a third person to speak to Her Majesty, Munshi said what he thought to her face all the time. And not all of it was pleasant. There were even shouting matches (behind closed doors, of course) with the old girl, Empress of India. As Victoria got older, Munshi’s power and misuse of it became more and more of a problem for the household, and then the government. He could lie and steal, and he did, yet no amount of complaints against him could sway her complete trust. Finally, after he contracted a severe case of gonorrhea, which was treated by her doctor, did she—albe-
Renee Appelle
it very reluctantly—begin to listen. But Munshi held on almost to the end of her life. The same was true with a previous man in her life after Albert, John Brown. A Scotsman with a foreign temperament (as far as the Queen was concerned), Brown started out as one of Prince Albert’s gillies (a hunting and fishing guide) at Balmoral. Then, after Albert’s death, Brown was promoted to be the Queen’s “special servant,” with ponyleading duties. He is described in the book as “tall, powerfully built, firm-jawed, and blue-eyed.” He made the Queen “feel safe” with
PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N
Dominique Huett and Lauren Lombardi