Member Review
Review by
Janet P, Reviewer
This book, a republication of a book from the early 1980's suffers because it is dated. The author's thesis, that the British royal family is upstanding and bound to duty and good behavior, suffered greatly in the events of the early 21st Century.
Although with the next generation of Royals (i.e. the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) and the happier life of Charles with Camilla have done much to recover this sense, whenever the author talks about Charles and Diana's happy marriage or talks serenely of Prince Andrew being proper I keep thinking of the revelations about Diana and Charles or of the photos of a topless Fergie sunbathing on a Texas millionaire's yacht.
While the book is very well written and has lots of interesting information about the Royal Family and monarchs up through the late 1960's, it was not as strong on the last 50 years. All too often when reading about these events I felt as if the author was only working from current published sources instead of documents with a more historical perspective as he used in the rest of the book.
In spite of these flaws, it's a good book.
Although with the next generation of Royals (i.e. the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) and the happier life of Charles with Camilla have done much to recover this sense, whenever the author talks about Charles and Diana's happy marriage or talks serenely of Prince Andrew being proper I keep thinking of the revelations about Diana and Charles or of the photos of a topless Fergie sunbathing on a Texas millionaire's yacht.
While the book is very well written and has lots of interesting information about the Royal Family and monarchs up through the late 1960's, it was not as strong on the last 50 years. All too often when reading about these events I felt as if the author was only working from current published sources instead of documents with a more historical perspective as he used in the rest of the book.
In spite of these flaws, it's a good book.
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