The royals - Kitty Kelley [296]
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Controversial… an often fascinating look at what everyone seems to be talking about in the wake of the death of the Princess of Wales… THE ROYALS is actually a close, and not always flattering, view of the entire royal family, starting with the present queen’s mother and father.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Scandal-packed.”
—Vanity Fair
“Miss Kelley is a fine writer and indefatigable researcher… She has lost none of her edge here in THE ROYALS… A delightful read… As early as the second page, Miss Kelley is referring to the royal family’s ‘secrets of alcoholism, drug addiction, epilepsy, insanity, homosexuality, bisexuality, adultery, infidelity, and illegitimacy’ in this century. None of this is exaggerated, none of it is false.”
—Washington Times
“Scathing… a tonic following the near-canonization of the People’s Princess.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Entertaining… fun to read… good stuff.”
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“The larger, hotter rumors are as interesting for the way they are presented and justified as for what they contain.”
—The New Yorker
“Illuminating insight into the royals’ lives and history.”
—Observer (London)
“The best pages in THE ROYALS are about the hedonistic lives of Princess Margaret and her former husband, Anthony Armstrong Jones/Lord Snowden… THE ROYALS makes a battle mace with which to dent a rusting crown.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune
“A genuinely independent book about the monarchy.”
—Guardian (London)
“An irresistible book… Kelley does a boffo job on Sarah Ferguson… her description of the Duke of Windsor… is worthy of Noel Coward… her Diana stories are a welcome antidote to the lachrymose news coverage of her death and funeral, as refreshing as sherbet between heavy courses. Choose your flavor.”
—American Spectator
“A smorgasbord of scandalous tidbits… warts-and-all biography.”
—People
“Kelley’s book sizzles.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Kelley’s pen is mightier than the sword.”
—Houston Voice
* George III spoke English but as a second language; he preferred German.
* Between themselves, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor referred to the winsome Princess as “Shirley” after Shirley Temple, the most successful child star in Hollywood history.
* In 1971, when Queen Elizabeth was forty-five years old, she caught chicken pox from her seven-year-old son, Edward. In 1982, at the age of fifty-six, she had her first wisdom tooth extracted.
* Because she is female and first in line to the throne, she is presumed to be the heir. If she were male (far more preferable), she would be called the heir apparent.
* Philip and Elizabeth were second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark, third cousins through Queen Victoria, and fourth cousins once removed through King George III.
* Movietone News was a newsreel shown in movie houses before the advent of television. By buying tickets to a cinema, people could see the news before or after the featured film. Newsreels, created in 1909, were especially popular in the 1930s and 1940s.
The British writer Nigel Nicolson recalls watching a newsreel in London in 1947 with his friend Sibyl Colfax. They had come to see the Mountbattens’ departure from India at the end of his term as Viceroy.
“They were seen off at the airport by [Prime Minister] Jawaharlal Nehru,” said Nicolson. “As the plane took off, Sibyl said to me, ‘But what they didn’t show was that Edwina at the last moment kissed Nehru full on the lips, which deeply shocked Indian feelings, undoing all the good that Dickie had done.’ The woman sitting immediately in front of us turned and said, ‘Hullo, Sibyl.’ It was Edwina Mountbatten, and sitting beside her was her husband. They had come incognito to the cinema to watch themselves. There was little doubt that they had heard what Sibyl said. I whispered to her, ‘Would you like to leave?’ ‘I think we’d better,’ she replied. We left.”
* The next year, 1948, the Labor government passed the British Nationality Act, making Commonwealth