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Gyles Brandreth's "Philip and Elizabeth"

Review: Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage by Gyles Brandreth

(Buy it at Amazon.com)

One of my primary scholarly interests as a graduate student is the genre of biography. As much as I love reading and dissecting them, I’ve often found that when I’ve attempted to write biographical sketches, there’s a fine line between sounding too dry and academic and sounding too much like a sensational tabloid or a chatty friend.

Gyles Brandreth manages to balance these two extremes quite brilliantly. His Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage is the kind of biography that I love to read and that I’d someday like to write. He has a warm and approachable tone that still maintains an air of authority. He handles his subject matter sensitively and appropriately, but he doesn’t shy away from talking about subjects that are sometimes difficult and potentially scandalous.

In short, I have to admit that Philip and Elizabeth is perhaps the best royal biography I’ve read yet – and I’ve read quite a few of them.

It helps, I think, that Brandreth has chosen to explore the life of a couple rather than a single person. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh are so intertwined in life that it would really prove impossible to write a book about one without essentially writing a book about the other. By choosing to cover both famous figures, Brandreth opens up a world of available material to discuss. He covers areas familiar to those who enjoy reading about the Windsors: the lives of The Queen’s parents, King George VI and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the abdication crisis, the monarchs during the war, and The Queen’s childhood alongside Princess Margaret and their caretakers, Bobo and Alah.

But he also brings us into a lesser-known part of the Windsor family history – that of Prince Philip’s tumultuous family. I think perhaps my favorite sections of the book were the ones that focused on Prince Andrew of Greece, Philip’s father, and his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg. The Duke of Edinburgh, though his family was certainly complicated and fractured, has a fascinating pedigree. The descriptions of Andrea’s trial for war crimes had me on the edge of my seat, and the story about Alice’s efforts to save a Jewish family during the Second World War was extremely moving. The recounting of his sister’s death in a tragic plane crash had me weeping, as did the stories of his murdered aunts and uncles and the tale of his mother’s slide into mental instability. This is a family that has seen an almost unbelievable number of tragedies tracing through the branches of its tree, and Brandreth uses the vivid stories of these low points as well as moments of triumph to give his portrait of Philip a real depth – much more than we’d ever know from the placid and sometimes smirking face of the man who walks behind The Queen.

I’m always surprised (though I really shouldn’t be at this point) at how intertwined the families of the current crop of European royals are via their common ancestors, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Brandreth does an excellent job of continually reminding the reader of how interconnected all of these people are; Queen Margarethe of Denmark reminds him, “You think of us as European royalty … We think of ourselves as ‘family.’ We are all cousins. That’s why we are easy together.” Gems like this quote, and many others, are tucked away in Brandreth’s footnotes – you sometimes get the feeling that he was just bursting at the seams with all of the information he had to offer on his subjects, and the footnotes are chock full of little bits both of important clarification and fun trivia.

One of the greatest strengths of Brandreth as a biographer is his ability to pain fascinating character sketches of all of the major parties involved as well as the minor, colorful characters that have populated the lives of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh. I loved Brandreth’s description of Prince Louis of Battenberg, Prince Philip’s grandfather: “…he was noted for his virility, energy, charm and fondness for uniforms. Like his younger son, Louis Mountbatten, and, to a degree, his younger grandson, Prince Philip, Louis of Battenberg enjoyed dressing up. He had a variety of uniforms and an array of medals and, in public and in private, he relished parading in both. He also had an extravagant tattoo of a rampant dragon emblazoned across his chest and trailing down his legs. He lived life to the full.” How can you not be fascinated when presented with characters like that?

Some of our more familiar subjects are also present here: we meet The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, The Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson, The Earl of Wessex and Sophie Rhys-Jones. Their stories seem a little different when seen through the lens of a parent’s understanding of their children’s love lives – and when recounted by a person who is acquainted with those involved but peripheral enough to have a seemingly observational stance on the matters. If Brandreth picks a side in these affairs, he does a good job of at least appearing objective in his text. Like Sarah Bradford, Brandreth is good at writing about humans rather than heroes and villains, though he is more frank and conversational about their lives than Bradford is.

Brandreth is familiar with the foibles and figures here, but he rarely seems to have a horse in the race. Instead, he presents anecdotes about them based on his own experience but designed to keep the reader entertained. Case in point: his description of Princess Anne’s husbands. Mark Phillips “was from solidly middle-class stock, thoroughly respectable, if a little unexciting. When I met him I liked him. He seemed on the shy side and sparing with the small talk – but what do I know about dressage?” And Tim Laurence “is also from solidly middle-class stock, thoroughly respectable, if a little unexciting. When I met him I liked him. He seemed on the shy side and sparing with the small talk – but what do I know about nautical manoeuvers?” Toss in a story about Brandreth spending an entire dinner with his leg inadvertently pressed against Princess Anne’s, and you’ve got quite a fun view on the family.

And the fact that the book is, if not officially, then seemingly tacitly endorsed by The Duke of Edinburgh makes it an even more solid read. When Brandreth has a question about one of the people involved, he goes and asks them to answer it. We hear from Prince Philip himself, the above-quoted Queen of Denmark, the Mountbattens, close friends of Philip and of Elizabeth, and more. Brandreth even has a fascinating sit down with Paul Burrell. It’s not the most academic approach to the book, and at times it feels a little gossipy, but I’ve got to admit, I had much more fun reading it than I have in the past when reading those academic biographies.

So, in short, this is definitely the most enthusiastically recommended book to cross my desk yet for this blog. And, even more than that, I’m hoping to learn a little from it about how to write a book that is sensitive and measured but still loads of fun.

Buy Philip and Elizabeth by Gyles Brandreth at Amazon.com!

© 2008 The Royal Reader

"A Year with the Queen"

Robert Hardman’s A Year with the Queen

(Buy it at Amazon.com)

I don’t like to blog about books that I’ve yet to have the chance to get through, but I thought that since the film to which this book is a companion, Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work, is now airing in America, I’d drop in a link.

A Year with the Queen is marketed as a companion book; it’s reportedly part-guide and part-coffee table book, featuring lots of photographs and helpful information for new royal watchers who want more information on the various members of the Windsor family.

Monarchy is currently airing on PBS stations in most American markets; the first four episodes have already been broadcast, and next week the last two segments are scheduled to air. I highly recommend the film; it’s been fascinating so far, especially the inside look at Buckingham Palace investitures in hour three.

Buy A Year with the Queen by Robert Hardman at Amazon.com!

Claudia Joseph's "Kate: Princess in Waiting"

Amazon has details on an upcoming new book about Prince William’s girlfriend, Kate Middleton. The tome, written by Claudia Joseph, is scheduled for release by Mainstream Publishing on April 2, 2009.

It’s the second book written about Kate – the first was Robert Jobson’s William’s Princess, published in 2006. The synopsis on Amazon suggests that the book features “exclusive interviews” and “previously unpublished photographs,” and also notes that members of Kate’s family have apparently spoken to the author.

Joseph is a British journalist who has written for Tatler, The Times, and The Mail on Sunday. The Mail features a piece (“The making of the Middletons: How Kate’s family rose from a condemned flat to the verge of royalty“) written by Joseph almost a year ago which seems to be the basis for the upcoming book. The article features interviews with some distant family members, including Kate’s great-aunt and and her daughter. It’s more a history of the family than one of Kate herself, and it seems that’s possibly true of the book as well. Amazon notes that the book is “the extraordinary tale of an impoverished working-class family that overcame deprivation and adversity to rise to the upper echelons of society.”

If it is simply a family history rather than a book with new information on Kate, I probably won’t be reviewing it here, as it won’t be a book about anyone closely connected to the royal family. Others who may be interested can find more information about the book here: Kate: Princess in Waiting.

Jerramy Fine's "Someday My Prince Will Come"

Review: Someday My Prince Will Come by Jerramy Fine

(Buy it at Amazon.com)

Anyone reading a royal blog obviously has an interest in the lives of the British royal family. Some readers may be fascinated by the legal and constitutional roles of the royals in the British realm; others may be more intrigued by the personal lives and loves of kings, queens, princes, princesses, and other nobles. Some may even entertain fantasies of meeting a prince or a princess, falling in love, and becoming a member of the royal family with all its gems, castles, pomp, and tradition.

But how many royal watchers actually try to make that dream a reality? One, an American woman named Jerramy Fine, not only attempted to snag her prince but also penned a book about her adventures: Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess.

Here’s the gist of the story: Fine, a small-town American girl, with hippie parents, dreams of marrying a prince and living an upper-class lifestyle in England. At a young age, she discovers that Queen Elizabeth’s eldest grandchild, Peter Phillips, is just about her age, and she sets her sights on marrying her “prince” — quotation marks because, of course, as the son of the Princess Royal, Peter Phillips does not have a title. Improbably, she makes it to Britain, and after some major pitfalls, she actually does encounter her royal crush.

We all know the end of the story, of course — Peter Phillips married Canadian Autumn Kelly this May in a family ceremony at Windsor Castle’s St. George’s Chapel. Peter and his new bride earned the ire of the press when they chose to sell exclusive photos of their wedding to Hello! magazine for a tidy sum of money, something no member of the royal family had previously done. The newly married pair has recently moved to Hong Kong, where Peter has taken a job with a bank.

But Fine’s adventures through the world of British royalty are amusing even though many will know the ending before even cracking the spine of the memoir, and there are plenty of reasons to go along with her on her journey from the American west to the streets of London even if we know that her dreams to become a princess did not come true.

Fine takes her readers along on a global adventure, from the halls of Parliament to the pubs of Oxford, from palaces in India to farms in Colorado, and from a dorm room in New York to the very steps of Buckingham Palace. When she imagines how her hijinks at one party full of aristos might be reported by Tatler, she manages to capture the amusing tone of much of the entire book:

Unknown American social climber and Grace Kelly wanna-be shoves The Honourable Something Something-Something out of a windmill window as society birthday party spins dangerously out of control….

Along with its wacky anecdotes, the book also contains some moments of more serious reflection. Appropriately for today, the eleventh anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Fine’s book also touches frequently on her admiration for the late Princess. Her interest in Diana is a part of her larger feeling of personal connection to the royals, and she describes her emotions following Diana’s unexpected death in 1997 in a way that will surely feel familiar to many royal watchers.

As a fellow American who loves Britain and is very interested in the lives of the royal family, I could certainly relate to Fine’s thoughts and feelings at many points in her narrative. I was sometimes a little disappointed that those pro-English sentiments led to anti-American generalizations. Her absolute admiration for Britain often leads her throughout the book to dismiss the good qualities of the Americans around her. That point is reinforced when she repeatedly notes that the British men she hobnobs with while studying abroad in England consider her to be the only decent American they’ve ever met.

Such opinions are likely symptomatic of the upper-class environment that Fine sought while living in Britain, of course, where prejudice against Americans is often de rigueur. And Fine does learn upon moving to London that reality and dreams don’t always match up. She has to deal with less-than-perfect living conditions, soaring exchange rates, immigration crises, and neurotic flatmates. The trials and tribulations she endures while living as an expat in the UK make for some of the most entertaining sections of the book.

When the scene switches from the follies of everyday life in London to the traditional world of royalty, Fine has to cope with the challenge of bringing those less familiar with the monarchy into the fray. She deals with some of the more specific details about the monarchy by using footnotes throughout her memoir as a reference tool. Some of these asides were interesting, but often I felt that the book might have read more smoothly if the information was incorporated directly into the text.

Overall, the book is an enjoyable read, especially for those royal watchers looking for a bit of fun amidst the sometimes weighty tomes in the royal library. The book is at times funny, touching, cringe-inducing, frustrating, honest, and charming. Fine’s writing style is friendly and engaging, and that makes for a smooth and comfortable read. As the book builds toward its expected climax, the royal watcher will delight in glimpsing familiar royal figures, including Princess Anne and the Duchess of York, through Fine’s eyes. But it is that final moment — the improbable meeting with Peter Phillips himself — that is the biggest payoff for the reader, and it certainly is worth waiting for.

Review originally published on Sunday, August 31, 2008, at Watching the Windsors.

Buy Someday My Prince Will Come by Jerramy Fine at Amazon.com!

© 2008 The Royal Reader

Sarah Bradford's "Diana"

Review: Diana by Sarah Bradford

(Buy it at Amazon.com)

I decided this summer that it was time to bite the bullet and finally delve into a corner of the royal library that I had so far purposely avoided: the Diana section. So much has been made about the sensational and often suspect books written about the late Princess of Wales that I felt somehow better off not having waded into the mess, choosing instead to stay on the safer borders of books specifically about the monarchy and its long and storied history. The idea of reading the Andrew Morton books, with their controversial connection to the princess, left a bad taste in my royal-watching mouth. Paul Burrell’s tell-all, which so angered Diana’s sons when it was published in 2003, was also quickly filed in the “don’t touch that” section for me.

But when I read a few positive reviews about Sarah Bradford’s biography of the princess, simply titled Diana, I began to rethink my boycott of all books about her. I found a bargain-bin copy of the initial hardcover issue in my local bookstore and decided to give it a go.

I was surprised at how careful and yet still readable the biography was. It’s not the kind of sensational book that the press likes to grab hold of to cull more tabloid fodder from. Instead, it’s an intriguing book because it treats an intriguing subject — a woman mercurial and yet shockingly childlike, someone who was internationally beloved and yet caused major problems for a millenial institution like the British monarchy.

The Diana in Bradford’s book is at times immature and stoic, both glamorous and mousy. She loves her family and her friends, but she is easily angered. She publicly denounces the press for their intrusive treatment of her but keeps the numbers of the likes of Richard Kay and Martin Bashir on virtual speed-dial. This woman is not the saint who was so publicly venerated in the days following her death, but she is also not the disturbed devil portrayed by some colleagues of her former husband. She is, at the core, strikingly human.

This measured and honest biographical eye casts a similar gaze on all of the other supporting cast members in the book. There are no villains in Bradford’s biography of Diana — there are only humans. Prince Charles does not come off particularly well, to no surprise, and neither does Sarah Ferguson. But even as she is revealing some of the less savory aspects of the characters of various figures, Bradford takes pains to remind her readers of the circumstances that surrounded behaviors and feelings. She does not explain away faults and wrongdoings, but rather contextualizes them. It’s a healthy exercise, and a good one for all biographers. It’s what has given this book its reputation among royal watchers as the most balanced and unbiased book yet written about the late princess.

Unexpectedly, the person who was most illuminated for me by Bradford’s biography was Prince William. He was not discussed extensively in the book, but the little moments included from his childhood were quite telling. The image of little Wills stuffing Kleenex under a closed door in an attempt to comfort his crying mother was touching, but the moments that showed his incredible maturity in the midst of what Bradford made seem like an incredibly immature world were astonishing. I had never read before that Prince William was the one who suggested that Diana sell some of the gowns from her extensive collection to raise money for charity. That moment spoke of a precocious practicality that I hope has been nurtured and has grown as he has gotten older.

Prince William’s childhood desire to become a policeman (something he has discussed before, notably in Matt Lauer’s interview with the princes in the lead up to 2007′s Concert for Diana) so that he could protect his vulnerable mother also, I believe, is a very good sign for William as a future husband, father, and king. One of his Royal Navy superiors recently told the press that he felt William is a natural leader, which is of course important for someone who will one day become Britain’s head of state. But even more important may be William’s sensitivity toward the emotions of those around him and his desire to protect and care for the people he loves.

Bradford paints Prince Charles as someone often lacking in these two attributes, unable to sympathize with his young and emotionally unstable wife and equally unwilling to sacrifice his own comfort and happiness for the sake of his family. If the William portrayed by Bradford is the genuine article, he will surely be nurturing and empathetic toward his wife and children and toward his people once he is king.

Bradford does a good job of illustrating intriguing portraits of the figures in her book; Diana’s friends and family seem to come to life, warts and all, all around her. One of the more distracting choices on Bradford’s part, however, is her method of incorporating source material. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of her sources for the book are anonymous within the text, and she chooses to cite them in notes rather than using attributive tags within the text itself. The effect is that often, when she is quoting more than one source in a single paragraph, it’s difficult to pick apart various opinions and ideas. Her sentence structure is similarly tough to unpack at times.

The book is a mostly even-handed look at the life of the late Princess of Wales, and Bradford has done an admirable job coping with perhaps the most difficult task of all: attempting to untangle Diana’s own confused thoughts and actions about her life. The line between fantasy and reality was often a thin one for Diana, and Bradford has done the best she can to help peel away the layers to reveal the confusing and often unsettling reality that lies beneath. Bradford is sympathetic to Diana but not blinded by her, and that makes for a truly intriguing read.

Bradford’s book is not composed of the kind of flamboyant, bombastic writing that a reader can find in the pages of Tina Brown’s biography of Diana, but it’s certainly a far cry closer to an academic biography of the subject. It’s not the book I really want to read about Diana, but that tome won’t be able to be written or released for years — probably not until most if not all of the people discussed and interviewed are no longer living. For now, this is as close as it comes — and I’m glad I changed my mind about the “Diana section” and decided to read this particular story of her life.

Review originally published on Sunday, August 10, 2008, at Watching the Windsors.

Buy Diana by Sarah Bradford at Amazon.com!

© 2008 The Royal Reader