Today is World Book Day and as many children celebrate characters of the modern world, I feel it is only right that we celebrate a lost character from the past… Alice Laselles. The staring character of ‘The Adventures of Alice Laselles’, Alice was created in the mind of Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, later Queen Victoria, when she was aged just 10 ¾. At that time Victoria was living her famously isolated childhood at Kensington Palace. With few friends her own age due to the strict Kensington Ststem, Victoria relied heavily on the company of her 132 dolls, many of which were inspired by her favourite ballet dancers and opera singers. Aided by her governess, Baroness Louise Lehzen, Victoria also brought many of these characters to life through drawings and sketches.
Written in early 1830, this children’s story was created by the princess as a personal gift to her mother and was the Princess’s ‘first attempt at composition’. The story and its characters aren’t based on any of Victoria’s dolls but do offer a resemblance to some aspects of her own personal life.
The story begins at Laselles Hall and joins Alice as she is sent to live at Miss Duncombe’s school for girls by her father’s new wife. We then follow Alice as she adapts to her new surroundings and excels in her education, with the added mystery of who put a cat in Miss Duncombe’s kitchen.
In 2015 the Royal Collection published Victoria’s book, which includes several of the Princess’s own illustrations which still exist in the Royal Collection. While the publication of ‘The Adventures of Alice Laselles’ took place over a century after the author’s passing, this of course wasn’t the only book written by the Queen. In 1868 Victoria published ‘Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands’, which detailed her intimate time spent in Scotland. Despite the disapproval of her family and advisors, the book was considered a success and fifteen years later a second volume, titled ‘More Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highland’, was also published. While details of Victoria’s life live on through the existence of her edited journals, it is these personal stories that help give us a greater insight into the mind and life of the Queen.
© Queen.Victoria.Roses 2026
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