I have just finished, and enjoyed it very much. I agree, desertblues, that there was certainly some interpretation and invention by Strachey - for example his imagining of Victoria's last thoughts remembering back over her life as she was dying. But I do think that he drew a great deal on written records both by Victoria herself and the various people who had dealings with her.
I did love the section on Disraeli and how he buttered up Victoria:
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"You have heard me called a flatterer," he said to Matthew Arnold, "and it is true. Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to royalty you should lay it on with a trowel." (Chapter 8)
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And again Strachey's turn of phrase when describing the effect Disraeli had on the Queen:
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Like a dram-drinker, whose ordinary life is passed in dull sobriety, her unsophisticated intelligence gulped down his rococo allurements with peculiar zest.
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My main surprise in the book was just how much involvement (and sometimes interference) Victoria and Albert had in the affairs of state. They were really trying to run foreign affairs, particularly where countries connected to one or other of their numerous relatives were involved. Bookworm_Girl quoted the comment on the increase of the power of the Crown from 1840 and 1861, and then its decline. This of course was because of the influence of Albert. What a gifted and interesting man he was.
Great nomination once again, issybird!