2022 is the year of the royal biography, without a doubt. The Palace Papers has been a widely touted release for several months, and it is finally out. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get this one myself, but I’m glad I changed my mind! For today’s Book Bite, we are chatting about The Palace Papers by Tina Brown!
The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor- the Truth and the Turmoil, Tina Brown
The gripping inside story of the British royal family’s battle to overcome the dramas of the Diana years—only to confront new, twenty-first-century crises
“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.
Why You Should Read This…
Overall, an interesting read. Brown takes a rather unique approach where she is critical of everyone equally, a rare thing in a royal biography (group or otherwise). Most of it was familiar to me, but the section covering Camilla after her divorce up until her marriage was new, it certainly adds dimension to the “story” as I know it. I will say, I’m neither here nor there with Diana, but listening to this book made me incredibly sad for both of her sons and the impact that all of her behaviour had on them. Of course, the section on the Duke of York was horrible to listen to but that’s to be expected.
This wasn’t anywhere as salacious as I expected, and is a fairly solid look into the modern royal family of the last 40 years. If you are the type of person to pick this up, you probably know a fair amount about the current senior royals but Brown’s critical (perhaps equally biased against all?) approach feels fresh.
Have you read The Palace Papers by Tina Brown?
Cheers,
The Historian
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