Robins, Jane

views updated

Robins, Jane

PERSONAL: Female.

ADDRESSES: Home— London, England.

CAREER: Journalist and writer. Has worked as a reporter for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) On the Record and editor of Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster.

WRITINGS

The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair That Nearly Ended a Monarchy (nonfiction), Free Press (New York, NY), 2006, published as Rebel Queen: The Trial of Queen Caroline, Simon & Schuster Ltd. (London, England), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the Economist, Independent, Spectator and the New Statesman.

SIDELIGHTS: In her book The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair That Nearly Ended a Monarchy, published in England as Rebel Queen: The Trial of Queen Caroline, Jane Robins tells the story of Caroline of Brunswick, who married the British Prince of Wales in 1795. When the Prince became King George IV in 1820, he set out to divorce Caroline. Robins begins her tale with the engagement of Caroline to the Prince, who never saw her before and found her unattractive. She then follows the couple’s tumultuous relationship, which included a long separation. As she delves into the resulting divorce trial before the House of Lords, where the very popular Queen was accused of adultery, the author ultimately reveals how Caroline was acquitted of infidelity charges and the unpopular King was forbidden to divorce her. A Kirkus Reviews contributor referred to The Trial of Queen Caroline as “a lucid account of one of the messiest, sleaziest and most dangerous times in British history.” Brad Hooper, writing in Booklist, commented that “George and Caroline . . . were colorful in their own fashion and make engaging reading for the history buff.” A contributor to the Economist called Robins’s book “fascinating,” adding: “The English, it was said, were an ‘inquisitive, prying, doubting, reading people’ and Ms. Robins brings them richly to life—especially the women who, for the first time in English history, came out collectively and publicly as a sisterhood.”