British Royal Family, Biographies and Histories

[Lady Jennifer]

This book sounds interesting.

The Sunday Times - Books

The Sunday Times
January 29, 2006
A Royal Affair: George III and His Troublesome Siblings by Stella Tillyard

REVIEWED BY ANTONIA FRASER
A family unfit for a king

A ROYAL AFFAIR: George III and His Troublesome Siblings
by Stella Tillyard Chatto £20 pp400


“Courage, Princess, courage,” said the Duke of York to his future sister-in-law, Queen Charlotte, as he hauled her up the aisle in 1761. The princess surely needed it, since she had arrived only that day from Germany and would be bedded with her sight-unseen husband George III that night.
Throughout the centuries, there have been a great many princesses who required fortitude to endure arranged marriages to foreign monarchs.....

The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion

V cover
promotional use, not subject to copyright

[KatieLouise]

This does sound interesting... I just wish the review was less a plot summary of the book, and concentrated a bit more on whether it was well-written and well-researched or not! Has anybody here had the opportunity to have a look at it yet? :)

[pdas1201]

I just checked online, it seems the book is only available in UK, which is bad for us in the US. So far, there has been any mention of releasing the book in America. I have high expectations from this book, as the previous one 'The Aristocrats' written by the author was excellent. The book was throughly researched and wonderfully written.

[Lady Jennifer]

Originally Posted by pdas1201

I just checked online, it seems the book is only available in UK, which is bad for us in the US. So far, there has been any mention of releasing the book in America. I have high expectations from this book, as the previous one 'The Aristocrats' written by the author was excellent. The book was throughly researched and wonderfully written.

Could we buy it through www.amazon.co.uk ?
I've never bought anything from that site & I didn't know how it works when you live in another country & buy from their site

[KatieLouise]

Originally Posted by Lady Jennifer

Could we buy it through www.amazon.co.uk ?
I've never bought anything from that site & I didn't know how it works when you live in another country & buy from their site

You can order from any Amazon site from overseas. I've never bought anything from amazon.co.uk but I have from amazon.com and it's quite straightforward. :)

[Elspeth]

If you're signed up for Amazon.com you should be automatically signed up for the UK site. You may need to give them your address and credit card stuff again, but your username and password is the same on both sites. I buy stuff from both, and it works fine.

[JessRulz]

A book was featured in last week's edition of the New Idea, about Prince Philip and his wit. There were extracts of the book, which I have taken photos of for the forum
Information on the book:
Title: The Duke of Hazard: The Wit & Wisdom of Prince Philip
Author: Phil Darniper & Ashley Walton (New Idea writers, according to the magazine)
Publisher: Guild Publishing

*Some of the extracts you can't read, because of the flash from my camera.

#3 - a close up of the one in the top-righthand corner of #1
Source: Photos of my own copy

[Lady Jennifer]

I just got back from my local Barnes & Noble & I found a new book. Its called The Women of Windsor by Catherine Whitney. According the the B&N website it came out in April of '06. The book is about The Queen Mum, The Queen, Princess Margaret & Princess Anne. Has anyone read it or heard about this book? If you have read it, what are your thoughts about it.

[norwegianne]

It sounded a bit interesting, at first. Mostly because of Princess Margaret and Princess Anne, about whom I haven't read all that many biographies...

but then I found this quote on the Barnes and Noble page about the book:

Whitney's treatment of "the women of Windsor" (the queen mother, the queen, Princess Margaret, and Princess Anne) opens, oddly enough, with a prolog not about any of them but instead criticizing the late Princess of Wales ("Drama Queen") and Prince Charles ("the queen's biggest headache"). Whitney (The Calling: A Year in the Life of an Order of Nuns) then goes over familiar ground in this superficial work-the abdication of Edward VIII, the marriage of Elizabeth and Philip, Princess Margaret's affair with Peter Townsend, the attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne, etc., unable to go into any depth owing to the amount of ground she must cover in well under 300 pages.

- from Library Journal, Liz Mellett, P.L. of Brookline, MA

I'll probably see about getting it, but the review didn't make it sound overly tempting.

[Chiyo]

I've read it, and it does skip around a bit, and I wouldn't recommend it to any Diana fanatics, but it's a quick summer read. She's very sympathetic towards both the Queen Mum and Princess Margaret.

[soCal girl]

Are there any good pictures in the book? It sounds interesting enough for a summer read. I'll have to go check it out at my local Barnes and Nobles. Thanks for telling us Jennifer! :)

[Chiyo]

Not really, no. If you have other books on the Windsors, you've seen these pictures, and they're all in black and white, too.

[tenngirl]

I read this book and I was not impressed. Unfortunately, she gets some of her dates wrong. I think Harry's birthday is one of them and there were a couple of others.

I did not like the style that it was written in. Almost like an Ingrid Seward with bated breath and all that. For example, supposedly when the Queen Mother died, Princess Anne came to be with the Queen and then later the Queen was happy she was there. And the Queen is thinking about how proud she is of her, blah, blah. It was like she was putting thoughts in her head and I thought it was ridiculous.

I think the idea of the book is good and I was looking forward to it. However, if you know much about the family, there is nothing really new. Basically, its a new opportunity to slam Diana!!!

[Skydragon]

If it's Saturday, it must be Sandringham

What really goes on behind the royals' gilded doors? And how would an arch-republican feel about staying overnight in a palace? Jeremy Paxman, in the first of two extracts from his new book, recalls the shock of finding himself in a world of equerries, valets and hand-pressed underwear.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts...rc=rss&feed=10

[Henri M.]

It is a bit embarassing that such an renowned journalist as mr Paxman can loose himself in futilities which trap himself.

He wrote about Prince Charles' demand that for breakfast there must always be seven eggs, boiled from extremely soft (number one) to rock hard (number 7) and all gradations in between. The Prince then makes a choice between the seven eggs, depending on his taste.

Asked about the source for this information mr Paxman: he heard it 'from friends'. But apparently he had not checked this information at all.

Chris Barber, who for 11 years was Chef of the princely kitchens: 'Prince Charles never ever throws food away. And he also never eats an egg at all for breakfast'.

[Skydragon]

The zoo must go on

How has a supposedly powerless institution like the British monarchy survived all calls for its abolition? In the second excerpt from his book on the royals, Jeremy Paxman examines the relationship between princes, prime ministers and the people.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts...rc=rss&feed=10

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

If it's Saturday, it must be Sandringham

What really goes on behind the royals' gilded doors? And how would an arch-republican feel about staying overnight in a palace? Jeremy Paxman, in the first of two extracts from his new book, recalls the shock of finding himself in a world of equerries, valets and hand-pressed underwear.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts...rc=rss&feed=10

Skydragon, thank you for posting this link.

I started reading the article but stopped rather early on when I read that" A few years ago, Buckingham Palace advisers decided that the Queen really ought to see a little of the working lives of her subjects." - sorry, but I decided that this reader ought not to read the rest of either articles or the book.

Because I don't buy into a view of the Royal household where "advisors" decide what the queen has to do. It's such a direct - well, not longer just a hint, but a broad one or - clue that the author has no idea of Her Majesty's personality at all. Mind, I don't know Her Majesty apart from reading about her, but the overall picture that is painted of the queen is that she knows exactly what she wants and while she listens to advisors and treasures their efforts, she is the one who is in charge. Full stop.

So, this Paxton guy really seems to be at a complete loss when it comes to royality. But who might be interested in "The world of royality according to Paxton"? - to paraphrase Irving's Garp a bit.

BTW - why doesn't the Prince of Wales use egg coddlers? AFAIK they were invented to prevent exactly the problem as mentioned by Paxton: they are filled according to the master's wishes and cooked à la minute right in the butler's pantry.... I've quite a couple of those by Royal Worcester and my family loves to fill them on a sunday brunch or a High Tea. And I don't think Clarence House knows less than me about British tradtions when it comes to breakfast or High Tea.

[wartenberg7]

I´m looking pretty "desperately" for the 1977-biography about the late eldest son of Prince Henry and Princess Alice, former Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, "William of Gloucester: Pioneer Prince"
Can someone help?!

[Warren]

You'll find it on this page of Amazon.com.

[wartenberg7]

Originally Posted by Warren

You'll find it on this page of Amazon.com.

Thanks a lot - I was unlucky enough to have lost it at an ebay auction recently...
Can somebody give som pre-informations about it (about photos and the quality of informations about Prince William in it, etc.)?