Publisher's Synopsis
Agnes Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England (1840-8) marked a new era in the writing of English history by women. 'Facts not opinions' was the watchword of these historical biographies, which were based on pioneering manuscript research. Yet, as Antonia Fraser explains, the title-page attributing the Lives to Agnes Strickland masked a work of joint authorship. Agnes may have been the public figurehead of these works of historical biography, but her sister Elizabeth, who lived in seclusion, was Agnes's collaborator, undertaking much of the writing and research.
