Lauri Thorndyke is the author of the series The English Walks in Florence?The Grand Tour, the Victorian Tourist, the Edwardian Resident, available at the Paperback Exchange, the British Institute Library, and museum bookshops in Florence.
This is an important year for the monarchy in Britain: 2012 marks the 60th year that Queen Elizabeth II has reigned, a record only broken by one other monarch-her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. For those of us with British roots or just a keen interest, the Queen's