Quotes from Kate Williams

Over the years to come, one thing is for certain: if the monarchy wishes to stay relevant and in power, it will have to change more.

Redheads were particularly persecuted during the European witch trials of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The colour was associated with the devil, and the pale skin which most redheads have was thought unnatural and deathly.

I used to hate reading my old work, but now I'm rather fond of it. I quite like going through it in the hope of making it better.

One woman came up to me at a lecture and observed that I was much fatter than on television; I think I look better onscreen than in real life. It's the lights.

As an older child, I was a huge 'Anne Of Green Gables' fan.

Precise historical reasons are difficult to pinpoint, but red hair, it seems, bestows a sense of otherness. Red is the colour of blood and danger.

I like boxes because of the secrets they hide.

Are we really so far from the Victorians? Much of what our society holds important was shaped in the 19th century.

I wouldn't mind an original letter from Napoleon to Josephine - in the early days, his letters arrived torn to pieces because he was overwhelmed by his passion for her.

As historians, we spend days in archives, gazing at account books. We train would-be historians in the arts of deciphering letters and documents, early Latin, scribal handwriting, medieval French.

I receive many letters from people hoping to research their own houses.

I've written extensively on Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth and seen up close how those women, who were born when the country hoped for a male heir, made their way as leaders.

I'm fascinated by historical fashion, and I like to live in the past slightly. If I could walk around all day dressed in a crinoline, I would.

While you are waiting to die, you have to live.

As the weather improved, the bobms got worse. The newspapers said that the Kaiser was aiming to knock London down (although avoiding Buckingham Palace, so as not to hit his relations).

It is calculated that George III had an astonishing fifty-six grandchildren. He did not have one legitimate heir. The vision of Charlotte had sustained the people through the direst years of the regency. Without her, all hope seemed gone. From "Becoming Queen Victoria

Victoria liked music full of high passion and drama. "I am a terribly modern person," she decided.

AMBITION IS NEVER content, even at the summit of greatness," Napoleon declared.

It would be wrong to kill oneself if one did not know exactly the nature of one's eyes.

There were strange noises in the room, great bellowing sobs that did not sound like anything human. They bounced off the wals, echoing in her ears. Stop! she wanted to cry at the person who was making the noise. Then she realised that it was her.

And yet, as Verena watched her turn back to the dusting, she had the curious sensation that positions had been reversed in the oddest fashion. The girl was the one telling her to go away, it was her house and Verena was the maid.

I am more English than the English.- Rudolf de Vitt

It was as grim a social scene as I'd ever encountered, and I missed everything I'd left behind at home. I wondered what my nail polish collection was doing right now.

Government worried that the parishes could not cope with such demands, and there was a widely held notion that the able-bodied were indolently living on handouts.