George IV (Penguin Monarchs)

<p>George IV spent most of his life waiting to become king: as a pleasure-loving and rebellious Prince of Wales during the sixty-year reign of his father George III and for ten years as Prince Regent when his father went mad. <br><br>'The days are very long when you have nothing to do' he once wrote plaintively but he did his best to fill them with pleasure - women art food wine fashion architecture. He presided over the creation of the Regency style which came to epitomise the era and he was with Charles I the most artistically literate of all our kings. Yet despite his life of luxury and indulgence George died alone and unmourned. <br><br>Stella Tillyard has not written a judgemental book but a very human and enjoyable one about this most colourful of all British kings.</p>