How I uncovered Victoria's secret love

There have long been whispers of a romance between the queen and her Scottish servant John Brown, but nothing concrete to support them.

- Fern Riddell

Now Fern Riddell, author of an explosive new book, reveals how she turned sleuth to track down evidence of their secret passion

The story that's consumed my life for much of the past few years has it all: family dysfunction, political intrigue, royalty, the rewriting of our national history. A secret hidden for generations. These are the sort of things historians can get carried away by.

When we're undertaking historical research, it often becomes clear that the relationship between fact and fiction can be a murky one. There's often a gap between what we want the truth to be and the reality of the lives that have been lived. So it was with my latest project. After four months of research, I couldn't quite believe what I'd uncovered.

I'd been tracing the footsteps of both historians and historical people, and I was finally convinced that what I'd found came close to representing irrefutable proof of a remarkable secret - one offering an answer to a 160-year-old question. But making the breakthrough didn't come without risk - one faced by nearly every historian who had got so far before me, and who turned back at the final hurdle, unable to bring their research to light. So, before I pushed ahead, I called a trusted friend and mentor to discuss what I thought I'd discovered.

"I've found it," I exclaimed. "I've found the lost archive of Queen Victoria and John Brown."

Royal inspiration

Towards the end of 2021, my agent, Kirsty McLachlan, had set me a challenge.

"You need a new project," she declared. "What can you say about Queen Victoria?"

"I don't do the royals," I retorted, instantly rejecting the suggestion. "Anyway, most royal historians face censorship the moment they find anything interesting."