Ask Sir James

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>In a dark cupboard of her house Michaela Reid the granddaughter-in-law of Sir James Reid discovered forty pocket diaries and thirty-one of his large scrapbooks as well as some two hundred letters and notes from Queen Victoria.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Although Sir James was never allowed to see the queen undressed she summoned him four or five times a day and he quickly became her confidant privy to all the intimate aspects of her court and family life.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>It was he who was responsible for persuading Princess Christian to give up her opium addiction as well as coping with John Brown's alcoholism. The doctor's memoirs have left us a vivid portrait of the queen who was eccentric and stubborn yet at the same time perceptive endearing and warm- hearted.</span></p><p></p>