A biography of the world’s most famous house and the story of its vital role in the history of a nation. In this social history of Buckingham Palace, Edna Healey mines the royal archives to take the reader into its moonlit gardens, up the grand staircase, and inside its tapestried walls. Dr. Johnson again holds forth in the library, Queen Victoria encores Mendelssohn in the music room, and in the royal chambers Fanny Burney wrestles once more with protocol. Written with the assistance of the royal family, this lively and colorful biography of a house reveals not only the changing façade of the palace but also the changing face of a nation’s culture, morals, fashions, and tastes. 16 pages of color photographs; 8 pages of black & white photographs