Awkward truths
Nobody comes out well in Tina Brown’s riproaring account of the lives and behaviour of the current leading royals, writes Moira Redmond
The utter brilliance of Tina Brown’s The Palace Papers is that it makes you at the same time think the Royals have unimaginable extraordinary lives – and that they are a family just like any other, with this sister-in-law, that mother, and a fight over a social event. It is quite the achievement.
The long-awaited book from the celebrated editor – Brown was formerly at the helm of the likes of Tatler, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair – covers the period from Princess Diana’s death till now, including the deaths of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, the marriages of the old Prince and the young princes, Megxit, and the Prince Andrew disaster. She presents, very fairly, the doings of the current major Royals and the past lives of the major incomers: Camilla Parker Bowles, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle.
This isn’t a flat-out hatchet job – Brown, with her acclaimed 2007 Diana biography already under her belt, is clearly as fascinated by the royals as she is determined to hold them up to the light – but this set of pesky royals comes over badly. They expect loyalty and commitment from staff, and give little in return. They think they work hard, but don’t.
They spend huge amounts of unearned money, but are stingy and thoughtless with others. Typical was the treatment of Princess Margaret’s chauffeur David Griffin – working ridiculous hours for years, and then made redundant and told to leave his accommodation when she died.
Like all biographers Brown is apparently obliged to say how wonderful the Queen is, but this is tempered with some sharp comments about her lack of parenting and her emotional coldness. Prince Charles “just wasn’t the kind of person the Queen admired”, according to Brown.
Nobody comes out of this well, with the possible exception of the Middleton family and Kate herself. Kate was bullied at one school, and removed by her parents. What does it show that surely all the royals in the book would just have been told to get on with it?
Brown finds out a lot about Meghan’s background, and at times imagines herself into her head. In 2016 “[Markle] was well aware of the clock running down. She was about to turn 35, and still had not gotten the call from Anna Wintour to join the red carpet at the Met Gala”. While poking gentle fun at her determination to get on in life, Brown is also sympathetic to Meghan’s lack of understanding of what she was getting into.
Despite the cold pomposity of many of Brown’s subjects, this is a riproaring read. When it comes to the fights and the quarrels, she tries to adjudicate – for example, addressing rumours of discontent in the Kate/ Wills marriage, but very carefully indeed. She is able to go in a lot harder on Prince Andrew because of the undisputed facts of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and that