Edward Frederic "E. F." Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.
Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
This book should have been titled Queen Victoria’s Eldest Daughters. It’s a tragic portrayal of Prince Albert’s dream of uniting Germany (and Europe) peacefully through his daughters’ marriages, a dream which royally backfired. Instead, Princess Vicky’s and Alice’s marriages put them on opposing sides in war, and also in conflict with the (Danish) Princess of Wales, wife of their eldest brother (later Edward VII). Power-hungry Wilhelm II of Germany, Vicky’s son, receives more attention than QV’s younger daughters. Perhaps this reflects the book being published in 1938, on the eve of another world war. Princess Louise and Beatrice were still living, which probably also limited the author’s focus. The stale convention of identifying women by their husbands’ names gets confusing; thus Alice becomes Princess Louis. Still well worth the read for the machinations of marriage in the royal houses of Europe.