The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline, by Flora Fraser (Papermac, £9,99 in UK)

Princess Caroline of Brunswick married George, Prince of Wales, in a "marriage of convenience" in 1795. It was doomed almost from the beginning and they soon separated, each finding consolation in a series of lovers. Caroline was virtually banned from contact with their daughter, Charlotte, and the English Establishment, determined that she should never be Queen of England in any real sense, forced repeated humiliations upon her and eventually put her on trial for adultery - a charge which was demonstrably true, but then the Prince's own shabby amours were notorious. Caroline proved hard to get rid of however, and there was a good deal of popular support for her in spite of her scandalous private life. Frivolous, vain, a mental lightweight but not ill natured, she had little luck or happiness in later life and her daughter, Charlotte, died young in childbirth. A rank odour of old Regency scandal rises from these pages.