Children's story penned by young Queen Victoria reveals more about her 'melancholy' childhood

A children's story penned by a young British royal has been published for the first time, after historians discovered it hidden deep within the royal archives.

Contained within a red notebook, stored in the royal archives at Windsor, the tale of 12-year-old Alice Lasells was written by the late Queen Victoria.

Experts say the story reveals a great deal about the monarch, famed for her stern disposition and devout diary-keeping, and what her self-confessed "melancholy" childhood was like.

ITV News correspondent Nina Nannar reports:

Written when she was 10 as part of a lesson on composition, the young Princess Victoria's story centres on Alice, who is sent away to Miss Duncombe’s School for Girls - a boarding school - when her father remarries.

The mystery story revolves around the discovery of a cat at the school's cottage - breaking the establishment's strict rules.

Despite Alice being innocent of such a terrible misdemeanor, the cat's collar consists of a red ribbon bearing her name - and it is up to her to prove she was not involved.

The illustrations of her heroine and the girls she meets at the school all come from paper dolls the young princess created with the help of her governess.

Best-selling children's author Jacqueline Wilson wrote the forward to Victoria's book, and said the short story revealed much about what was happening with the princess at that time - who, like her fictional creation, lost a parent at a young age and mixed with few other children as she was growing up.

She said:

Within a few years of writing the story, the princess would be crowned Queen and Empress, and Alice would be consigned to history - until now.

The Adventures of Alice Laselles is now on sale at bookshops and online.