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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1997-08 > 0870468485


From: Sara M White <>
Subject: Re: QUEEN VICTORIA'S GENE (Bioliographical Details)
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 21:44:23 UT


The full reference for this book is:

Queen Victoria's Gene, DM Potts and WTW Potts pub A Sutton Pub. June 1995
ISBN 0750 9086 88. UK price 18.99. Still in print. Don't know if it was
published in the US.

SMW
----------
From: Medieval Genealogy Discussion List on behalf of D. Spencer Hines
Sent: 30 July 1997 19:44
To:
Subject: QUEEN VICTORIA'S GENE

At 09:21 PM 7/29/97 +0000, you wrote:
>About two years ago a book was published in the UK on the subject of
>haemophilia and Queen Victoria's family. Trouble is I can't remember it's
>name, I think Victoria and gene came into it (if anyone is really interested
>and can't find it let me know and I will try to dredge up the details from
the
>depths of my memory).
>
>It was written by two people, doctors or physiologists, and was
fascinating as
>it gave an account of how and why haemophilia occurs and also an account of
>the ramifications in the family of Queen Victoria.
>
>SMW

The book *may* have been [was to have been] called "Queen Victoria's Gene"
by Malcolm Potts [Embryologist at the University of California, Berkeley
and William Potts [Zoologist at Lancaster University, UK] Please note the
credentials. :)

I first read about it in an article, "Was Queen Victoria A Bastard"
Newsweek 24 Jul 1995 p.56. Please note the complete citation.

At that time, the book was "forthcoming" ---- just as is Douglas
Richardson's article on "Countess Ida" and William Longespee. [I imagine
Douglas Richardson has firmly moved that one to the back burner, since he
is now working on a new book with David Faris. Much more lucrative, I
trust. The Free Market speaks and Douglas Richardson listens.]

During 1996, I repeatedly tried to buy the book and was told it did not
show in the United States Books in Print --- and other data bases.
Recently, I looked for it again at Amazon Books and Barnes & Noble. There
was no Joy in Mudville.

Perhaps the book is still "forthcoming?" I have even heard one story from
a British friend that it was "suppressed" by the Crown --- but I've not
seen any hard evidence for that. The two scientists [brothers, as I
recall] may have decided they needed to do more homework and research
before putting it on the street.

My last paragraph is very tentative and speculative --- because I have so
little reliable data. :)

Hopefully, some kind soul in the UK, or the publishing business, will have
more solid information and will share it with us.

Many of us, I am confident, would be eager to buy and read the book --- if
it is scholarly and well-researched by two chaps with the proper
credentials to give us something better than just an "off the top of the
head" *tour de force* or speculative entertainment about Queen Victoria's
*Poisoned Gene.*

D. Spencer Hines --- "The final happiness of man consists in the
contemplation of truth....This is sought for its own sake, and is directed
to no other end beyond itself." Saint Thomas Aquinas, [1224/5-1274]
"Summa Contra Gentiles" [c.1258-1264]

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