Title: The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor - the Truth and the Turmoil
Author: Tina Brown
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group 2022
Genre: Nonfiction
Pages: 571
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Summer TBR
“Never again” became Queen Elizabeth II’s mantra shortly after Princess Diana’s tragic death. More specifically, there could never be “another Diana”—a member of the family whose global popularity upstaged, outshone, and posed an existential threat to the British monarchy.
Picking up where Tina Brown’s masterful The Diana Chronicles left off, The Palace Papers reveals how the royal family reinvented itself after the traumatic years when Diana’s blazing celebrity ripped through the House of Windsor like a comet.
Brown takes readers on a tour de force journey through the scandals, love affairs, power plays, and betrayals that have buffeted the monarchy over the last twenty-five years. We see the Queen’s stoic resolve after the passing of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother, and Prince Philip, her partner for seven decades, and how she triumphs in her Jubilee years even as family troubles rage around her. Brown explores Prince Charles’s determination to make Camilla Parker Bowles his wife, the tension between William and Harry on “different paths,” the ascendance of Kate Middleton, the downfall of Prince Andrew, and Harry and Meghan’s stunning decision to step back as senior royals. Despite the fragile monarchy’s best efforts, “never again” seems fast approaching.
Tina Brown has been observing and chronicling the British monarchy for three decades, and her sweeping account is full of powerful revelations, newly reported details, and searing insight gleaned from remarkable access to royal insiders. Stylish, witty, and erudite, The Palace Papers will irrevocably change how the world perceives and understands the royal family.
Wow! That was quite a chunker that I didn’t quite realize until after I started reading. Before starting this book, I knew some about the royal family, but definitely would not call myself a royal watcher in any sense. Once diving in, I learned so much about the family. It’s fairly funny that I thought this would either be complete takedown of the family or a glowing portrait of them. It is neither. In fact, we get to see all the ups and downs of the family. In turns, I felt outrage at the obtuseness of the various royals when it came to how their actions hurt others. But I also felt sympathy toward them for the trials they endured, especially the outlandish attacks from the press. I now have a much more complete picture of the various royal family members.
Next up on the TBR pile:
