For some unknown reason, I am fascinated by royals. Don’t believe me? Check out this post I did a while ago about fictitious royals. So when I was walking through the library and saw a new book with Princess Diana on the cover, I gravitated. Picking it up, I realized that it was written by James Patterson (?!?) (and friends). While I’m not the biggest of fan of ole JP (and friends), curiosity won the day and the book came home with me (thanks Lucky Day!).
So it turns out the reason that Mr. Patterson decided to tackle the topic of Princess Diana and her boys is because 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of her death (and how did that happen?). Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed (read: did not hate) this book. It was easy reading. Kind of like the supermarket tabloid of books. Which is what we’ve come to expect in this country when discussing royals - especially British royals, who seem to be our favorites. (Old habits die hard.) Admittedly, not a lot of depth here, but it was a nice overview of what happened, painted in the broadest strokes. If you’re looking for a beach-ready bio, this is your jam.
While I was perusing the Patterson, my hold came in for this one. I’d never read anything from Ms. Brown before, but I read a review that said this one was great, plus remember how much I love royals, so here we are. I’d gotten about three or four chapters in when (cue dramatic music), HRH Queen Elizabeth II passed away, which I didn’t know could happen. 70 years on, it felt like she would just keep being queen forever (to which the new King Charles replied, “Right?”). I was enjoying Brown’s much more in-depth book, but after the queen’s death, I plowed into it. Brown has worked at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, but she got her start in Britain’s tabloid, Tatler. There is a lot in this book. It’s 500 pages that captivated me. We talked a little bit about Diana, but mostly we talked about Kate, Megan, and the Prince Andrew scandal. If Patterson’s book doesn’t do it for you, check this one out. Much more substance here.
In 2017, Netflix released this series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth and her family. Honestly, I didn’t have much of an idea of how and why she became queen at such a young age. To me, she’d always been the grandmother figure. So this series was completely engrossing. Turns out she wasn’t supposed to be queen at all (you knew that though, right?). When her uncle Edward abdicated in order to marry American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, Elizabeth’s father, George VI became king. What a great story line. Now, if you are thinking, but Amanda, I don’t have Netflix. That’s ok. NPL has all four current seasons so you can get caught up on all the royal history. I’ve heard rumblings that Season 5 will be out soon. Season 6 was apparently in production when the recent events happened but they’ve paused to do a bit of a rewrite. This should give you plenty of time to do your homework.
This is just a brief sampling of the most recent royal items. NPL has lots of items about Queen Elizabeth and her family that you might find interesting. Explore a little today.
Happy royalizing…
:) Amanda
