George IV (Penguin Monarchs) (Penguin Monarchs)

George IV spent most of his life waiting to become king: as apleasure-loving and rebellious Prince of Wales during the sixty-yearreign of his father, George III, and for ten years as Prince Regent,when his father went mad.

'The days are very long when you havenothing to do' he once wrote plaintively, but he did his best to fillthem with pleasure - women, art, food, wine, fashion, architecture. Hepresided over the creation of the Regency style, which came to epitomisethe era, and he was, with Charles I, the most artistically literate ofall our kings. Yet despite his life of luxury and indulgence, Georgedied alone and unmourned.

Stella Tillyard has not written ajudgemental book, but a very human and enjoyable one, about this mostcolourful of all British kings.

Reviews

excellent... Tillyard offers insightful and balanced analysis of this ambivalent figure