I leave for Barcelona today and will be away for the next two weeks, delivering lectures about royalty and the Atlantic World on a trans-Atlantic cruise from Barcelona to Miami via the Canary Islands and St. Maarten. I will be offline until I return to Toronto on December 21 and will therefore be unable to approve comments, respond to e-mail or post new articles here in my absence.

There will be lots of interesting material on royalhistorian.com in 2013. I have Jane Ridley’s biography of Edward VII, Bertie: A Life of Edward VII, Justin Vovk’s study of Europe’s prominent royal consorts during the First World War, Imperial Requiem: Four Royal Women and the Fall of the Age of Empiresand David Cohen’s Bringing Them Up Royal: How the Royals Raised Their Children from 1066 to the Present Day packed for the voyage and will post my reviews in the New Year. Other royal history books on the way!

I am planning a 2013 blog series based on my cruise ship lectures about royalty in the Atlantic World so check back here for posts on such fascinating historical figures as Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Empress Josephine of France and King Edward VIII. I will also post the “royal histories” of the places of my itinerary complete with photos of any historic sites I encounter in my travels!

And, of course, I will continue to post material on the history of royal confinements and childrearing in anticipation of the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first child in 2013.