The secrets of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain forever hidden. What was so dangerous about this artistic, tempestuous royal that her life has been documented more by rumour and gossip than hard facts? When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view.

Friend to the pre-Raphaelites and sculptor in her own right, defender of the much-maligned Bertie and campaigner for women's rights: Princess Louise was a royal like no other. She had a notoriously difficult relationship with her mother, whose domineering influence remained strong, even into adulthood -- she had to battle for permission to attend art school, yet today her sculptures decorate some of the greatest houses of London. Louise is perhaps best known, though, for her colourful love life. Her affair with tutor and sculptor Joseph Edgar Boehm was common knowledge to friends in her bohemian circle and there were even rumours of an entanglement with her sister Princess Beatrice's handsome husband, Liko. She married for love, but when her husband's appointment as Governor General of Canada took them abroad, the relationship soured and they spent many months apart, with Louise playing the role of the perfect princess back at home in England.

Spirited and lively, The Mystery of Princess Louise is richly packed with arguments, intrigues, scandals and secrets, and is a vivid portrait of a princess desperate to escape her inheritance.