"The Palace Papers" by Tina Brown

If you're a longtime reader here, you all know I love a good gossipy memoir or biography... especially if it involves Britain's Royal family. :)  "The Palace Papers" by Tina Brown (former editor of Vanity Fair magazine -- which I also used to love reading regularly) certainly fit the bill.  I started reading this one around the time of the Queen's death in September. I didn't get very far before other books rose up on my reading priority list, but I dove in again recently. 

While the book occasionally dips back into the past for historical context, the material primarily covers the last 20-25 years of the Queen's reign, following the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, with a particular focus on the women who have joined the Royal family since then:  Camilla Parker-Bowles (nee Shand), Catherine/Kate Middleton, and Meghan Markle.  It's well written and well sourced,  impeccably researched and chock full of juicy tidbits. There's much here that's familiar to ardent Royal followers, of course, but Brown has uncovered some delicious details I'd never heard or read about before. 

(For example, I had previously read that Camilla initially took up with Charles in the 1970s to make Andrew Parker-Bowles jealous while he was away for a six-month military deployment. But I'd never heard the story of how they got  engaged:  both Camilla & Andrew's fathers approved of the match, and to ensure that it happened, they arranged to have an engagement announcement published in The Times of London -- including a wedding date -- BEFORE Andrew had actually proposed (!).)  

Brown dishes, and doesn't hesitate to pass judgment. She's critical of pretty much every one of the Royals (and particularly scathing towards Prince Andrew) -- but she also sympathizes and gives credit where credit is due (for example, citing Charles's forward thinking on/longtime support for environmental issues). 

This is a LONG book (maybe a little too long) -- but highly entertaining, and for the most part, it keeps you turning the pages. The hardcover version clocks in at nearly 600 pages, while my e-version, with font size and spacing adjusted for my comfort, was almost double that (!).  I'm guessing the paperback version, when it eventually arrives, will include an update dealing with the death of the Queen, the accession of King Charles, and speculation about the future direction of the monarchy.  

On an ALI note, possibly the saddest story in the book concerns Diana's mother, Frances (from Chapter 2, "Sex and Sensibility"): 

One of the bitterest moments of Frances's life was when her husband refused to let her see the baby son who had died shortly after birth. She struggled from the bed and banged frantically on the locked door of the nursery to which he had been snatched away. "My baby was taken from me and I never saw his face. Not in life. Not in death. No one ever mentioned what had happened," she recalled later. It was not for many years that Frances saw the baby's death certificate, with the entry "extensive malformation." 

4 stars on Goodreads. 

This was Book #43 read to date in 2022 (and Book #2 finished in November), bringing me to 96% of my 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2022 tagged as "2022 books."