QUEEN Victoria? Wasn't she a little old lady, spherical in shape, dressed in black, perpetually grumpy? Historian Lucy Worsley wants to make you think again in her illustrated talk at the Grand Opera House on Tuesday night.

In Worsley's Queen Victoria, you will meet a "complex, contradictory woman, who had a traumatic childhood, who loved dancing, who suffered calamity and bereavement, before coming out the other side as an eccentric, powerful and really rather magnificent old lady". Her 7.30pm talk will venture into the life, the palaces and the rich colourful age of a woman who ruled a quarter of the globe.

Worsley was major projects and research manager for Glasgow Museums before becoming chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity responsible for maintaining the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace State Apartments, the Banqueting House in Whitehall and Kew Palace in Kew Gardens. She oversaw the £12 million refurbishment of the Kensington Palace state apartments and gardens.

In 2005, she was elected a senior research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London; she was also appointed visiting professor at Kingston University. In 2016, Worsley presented the three-part BBC documentary Empire Of The Tsars: Romanov Russia With Lucy Worsley in January and Lucy Worsley: Mozart's London Odyssey in June. She filmed A Very British History for BBC Four and presented and appeared in dramatised accounts of the three-part BBC series Six Wives With Lucy Worsley.

She also has presented a three-part series entitled British History's Biggest Fibs With Lucy Worsley, debunking historical views of the Wars of the Roses, the Glorious Revolution and the British occupation of India.

Tickets for Tuesday's talk are on sale on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.