Our countdown to Christmas continues this week with our contributors' selections of the best history moments of 2009.
Today, Kate Williams shares her top history moments of the past year.
The Young Victoria – 'The film, starring Emily Blunt, as the youthful Queen, and produced by Martin Scorsese and the Duchess of York, was lavishly staged, beautifully acted, and full of historical detail. Reminding us that there is more to our longest reigning monarch than a black-shrouded widow of Windsor, the film will hopefully only usher in more historical adaptations.'
Books
'My favourite books were Amanda Vickery's Behind Closed Doors (Yale University Press), Tracy Borman's Elizabeth's Women (Jonathan Cape) and Alison Weir's The Lady in the Tower (Jonathan Cape).'
Play
'My favourite play was Enron by Prebble - for the historians of the future.' (Enron will be on show at the Noel Coward Theatre from January 16th, 2010, until May 8th)
Exhibition
'As exhibitions, I thought the V & A's Baroque was fantastic - some wonderful pieces.'
History Moment'My best historical moment was the opening of Agatha Christie's home (Greenway House near Brixham) by the National Trust in Devon.'
Kate Williams is the author of Becoming Queen (Hutchinson, 2008). She is currently writing a book about 19th-centuty France and a novel about historical murder. In Queen Victoria and the Palace Martyr , published in our April issue, she looks at the scandal that rocked court and parliament in the early years of Victoria’s reign, resulting in a personal and political crisis for the young queen.
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