PRINCE ANDREW, EPSTEIN AND THE PALACE

NIGEL CAWTHORNE

Gibson Square, 304pp, £20, ebook £14.99

When Prince Andrew returned from the Falklands War, aged 20, the handsome HRH was dubbed ‘His Royal Heartthrob’. Four decades on, following stories of unwise romances and sleazy finances, his reputation has collapsed amidst accusations of sex with an under-age girl and his notorious friendship with convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. Author Nigel Cawthorne wonders, how did Buckingham Palace allow this to happen?

Henry Mance, writing in the FT, reflected whether the fundamental problem for Andrew was that his career stalled with the birth of Prince William, making him no longer second in line to the throne. As his position slipped, Andrew had to find new ways to contribute to the world, and to finance a private-jet lifestyle. But Mance was disappointed by the book; it is ‘not very readable or original’, and it ‘shows no access to Andrew’s inner circle and shines little new light on the accusations’, though it did raise questions about the size and modus operandi of the British monarchy.

‘What’s so powerful in this book are the details,’ said Rosamund Urwin in the Times; ‘even a fervent royalist would be left thinking that Andrew is an egotistical oaf.’ Jenni Frazer in the Jewish Chronicle agreed. This is a ‘meticulously researched book’. It is a ‘punishing but probably necessary read’, with a ‘forensic analysis of a particular form of wickedness’. Sandra Callard in the Yorkshire Post felt the same: it is a ‘dirty story’, but ‘one of massive importance and interest to the people of England’.