title: Bertie: A Life of Edward VII
author:  Jane Ridley 
description: JANE RIDLEY is Professor of History at Buckingham University, where she teaches a course on biography. Her previous books include <i>The Young Disraeli</i>, acclaimed by Robert Blake as definitive, while her most recent biography, a highly praised study of the architect Edwin Lutyens and his relationship with his troubled wife, won the Duff Cooper Prize in 2003. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Ridley writes book reviews for the <i>Spectator</i> and other newspapers, and has also appeared on radio and several television documentaries. She lives in London and Scotland.
zlib_text: This one is for Kim Reilly, August 1961-December 2005, a talented artist
  and a true friend.
  
  Table of Contents
  Cover Page
  Dedication
  Prologue
  Part One Seven Days
  Chapter One
  Chapter Two
  Chapter Three
  Chapter Four
  Chapter Five
  Chapter Six
  Chapter Seven
  Chapter Eight
  Chapter Nine
  Chapter Ten
  Chapter Eleven
  Part Two Fire
  Chapter Twelve
  Chapter Thirteen
  Chapter Fourteen
  Chapter Fifteen
  Chapter Sixteen
  Chapter Seventeen
  Epilogue
  Acknowledgements
  About the Author
  By the same Author
  Copyright
  About the Publisher
  
  Prologue
  When Isobel and Edward Dunbar emigrated to New Zealand in 1874 to
  escape what Isobel considered to be a grimy and depressing life in
  Manchester, Edward was unwittingly carrying the seeds of a malady that
  would eventually ruin him. Isobel was twenty and Edward was twenty-four.
  They settled in Wellington, where Edward did various jobs and spent
  increasing amounts of time in drinking establishments, while Isobel made
  hats for a well-known milliner. One day in 1878, Edward overh