SUSAN SYMONS

Susan Symons

The accidental discovery by Susan Symons of a portrait of Queen Victoria in her attic sparked her lifelong interest in European Royal History and was also the start of a collection of portraits of Victoria and her family. By reading about the Queen’s colourful life story she realised that history need not be boring and that royal history in particular is both fascinating and fun. She says it is like a historical version of Hello magazine.

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Before becoming a royal author, Susan spent more than twenty years as a senior international tax partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers London office. She always intended to write as a second career but never imagined her first book would be about German schlösser (castles and palaces). She and her husband, Terry, took the car to explore northern Germany and on their first morning visited the schloss in Celle, Lower Saxony. The rest (as they say) is history – six books on German royal history and five books on Queen Victoria so far!  

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Susan has an MA in Victorian Studies from London University, where her dissertation was on the public image of the young Victoria. She makes regular visits to Germany and writes and lectures on German schlösser and German royal history as well as about Queen Victoria. Susan divides her time between the elegant and historic city of Bath, where she was born and brought up, and the beautiful coast of Cornwall, where her husband’s family have their roots.