ROYAL WEDDING Publishers rush to print Harry tales
Book market flooded with titles on Britain’s popular couple
Here come the royal bride-andgroom books.
With Prince Harry and Meghan Markle poised to tie the knot in England on May 19, publishers are rushing to join the celebration by releasing new titles on the popular couple.
Separate biographies of both Harry and his American fiancée are hitting stores in the USA, including ones by well-known British journalists Andrew Morton and Katie Nicholl.
And on the lighter side, for those absolutely giddy over the fairy-tale romance, there’s a Harry and Meghan adult colouring book and a Harry and Meghan paper doll collection.
“With the enormous popularity of television shows such as The Crown and Victoria, interest in the British royals is already at an alltime high,” says Matthew Ballast, a vice president at Grand Central, which is publishing Morton’s Markle bio.
“The fact that Meghan is American and a TV star makes her even more fascinating to us.”
Markle, 36, the Suits star with the megawatt smile, has famously claimed she knew little about her British Prince Charming, 33, before meeting him on a blind date.
Perhaps in her free time before her wedding, she could dip into Nicholl’s just-released Harry: Life, Loss and Love (Hachette), which takes us right through to the royal engagement.
For People magazine addicts, Harry’s story might be familiar, but Nicholl covers the young prince’s tragic loss of his mother, Princess Diana; his naughty adolescent (and post-) years; his redemption through military service; his charity work; why romances with Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas ended (neither liked the intense spotlight); and finally meeting and falling in love with Ms. Right.
Romance lovers will be happy to hear this tidbit from Nicholl’s book. Harry had to ask his grandmother’s permission to marry Markle, and Queen Elizabeth gave it with pleasure, according to a family friend, who reports: “The Queen is thrilled.
Neither the colour of Meghan’s skin nor the fact that she is a divorcée matter to her. She simply wants Harry to be happy and Meghan clearly makes him happy.” Sigh. Royal watchers can also look for these titles: • Prince Harry: The Inside Story by Duncan Larcombe (HarperCollins, on sale now) This bio by a British journalist, first published in the U.K. last year, is being released for the first time in the U.S., with a new jacket and two new chapters covering Harry’s relationship with Markle and their engagement. • Meghan: A Hollywood Princess by Andrew Morton (Grand Central, on sale April 17) Morton made his name in the 1990s with his explosive book Diana: Her True Story, which exposed the desperately unhappy marriage of Harry’s parents. The author of last month’s Wallis in Love, the story of another American divorcée who wed a British royal, Morton now tells all about Meghan. • American Princess: The Love Story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry by Leslie Carroll (William Morrow, on sale April 24) Carroll explains how a modern royal like Harry has been able to break tradition by marrying a divorced biracial American actress, and why she is being warmly welcomed into “The Firm.” • Harry & Meghan: A Love Story Colouring Book, illustrated by Teresa Goodridge (Dover, on sale now)
Get out your crayons! This gooey fantasy imagines the beaming couple riding horseback and boating, and looks ahead with panels of the wedding cake, the postceremony carriage ride and a balloon-festooned convertible getaway car (“Just Wed,” says the license plate) riding off to “Happily Ever After.” • Harry & Meghan Paper Dolls by Eileen Rudisill Miller (Dover, on sale April 18)
Prefer paper dolls over colouring? The outfits in this collection include a hunky Harry in the swimming trunks he sported while in Jamaica with Meghan, and his bride-to-be in the jeans and white “husband” shirt she wore to the Invictus Games in Toronto.
As for her wedding dress? Stay tuned.