In one of the great works of his maturity, 'In Memoriam' (1850) - written after the loss of his dearest friend - Tennyson vividly negotiated contemporary scepticism and the modern sciences of geology and evolution.

The story (told mostly with the aid of hitherto unpublished material located in the Royal archives at Windsor and the Tennyson Research Centre at Lincoln) of the remarkable friendship that developed between Queen Victoria and her Poet ...