The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne

     I'm not sure why, but I inserted "detective" into the title of this novel. Therefore, I was a little surprised that this was not a mystery-romance.  Instead, I discovered a hilarious romantic-comedy, where Melissa Romney-Jones puts a blond wig on and becomes Honey, a straight talking, sexy girl Friday. 
     Confident, in a way Melissa can't be, Honey creates the Little Lady Agency and begins organizing the woeful bachelors of London.  You know, the guys who can't quite figure out how to dress, or  even that they should bath daily. The men who need a date for that family wedding to get their mother off their back or to cover for something they're not quite ready to come out of the closet for.
     She sends flowers to their secretaries and gifts to their godchildren.  Then a lovely American estate agent engages Honey's services on a regular basis and over time she begins to fall for him.  Of course, she is in total denial, and it isn't long before Melissa and Honey's world meet and the explosion of their life occurs.
     Browne is terribly witty.  If I were to meet her, I would say (as the English do), "Well done, you!"
     While Melissa lacks the confidence that she gains when she becomes Honey, she certainly isn't helpless, and in fact recognizes her talents quiet readily.  Her flatmate, Nelson, is completely charming, but certainly not perfect in stereotypical fashion.  Of course, she has the hard hitting, no-nonsense friend, Gemma, but Gemma genuinely cares about Melissa, and their friendship is sincere and real.  Jonathan, the estate agent, is a bit aloof and moody, but considering he's just been dumped by a controlling ex-wife, that's understandable, and it lends to the mystery of exactly who Melissa will end up with.
      The Little Lady Agency is fun, a fantastic way to escape into a goofy bit of romance.  With a character firmly set in the morals and etiquette of the 1950s, the story focuses on romance, not sex, and provides a delightful day's worth of entertainment.

Queen Victoria, A Life by Lytton Strachey

Originally written in 1921, Strachey's biography of Queen Victoria is warm, portraying the young queen as a real person, not simply "the monarch".  We see Victoria as a temperamental and willful child, managed by her mother and Sir John, as they attempt to control the power the heir will have as queen.  We see her as the eighteen-year-old queen of the most powerful nation on earth, increasingly aware of how her current decisions will affect her power and her reign.  We watch as she grasps the import of political maneuvering and tactfully holds off the men who would control her.  Strachey's shows us the young woman deeply in love with her husband, Prince Albert, and that husband's powerful influence over her and eventually British politics.  Finally, we see her in her long widowhood, managing the powers that be in parliament and around the world.


Exceptionally well written, Queen Victoria, A Life, created a new kind of biography, one that portrays the whole of a famous life, a genuine human picture where Victoria is more than the queen; she is a wife, a mother, a woman and a queen who matured, changed her mind, and shaped a entire era.


Magnificent in it's details and profound in it's exploration, Strachey's writing captures the complexity of Victoria, her relationships, her personality.  Moreover, we are allowed to not only meet , but also to engage with the people surrounding Victoria: Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Galdstone, Disraeli and her devoted servants, governess "Lehzen" and later John Brown.


I thoroughly enjoyed this biography.  It never got bogged down in minute details.  The story was beautifully told and expertly presented.