📖 Book Review ~ The Diary of a Secret Royal by Henry Morris

 

Mudlark
Harper Collins
28 September 2023

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

From one of Twitter’s most cutting-edge satirists and irreverent political commentators comes the most scandalous Royal book of the year.

In a rapidly changing world the Royal Family own swathes of the country, most of the seabed and more money than anyone could ever spend. It is the role of the Chamberlain of the NDAs to keep things that way.

From transgressions to successions, travesties to majesties, follow eighteen months in the life of trusted toady Fenton Footlicker Esquire as he takes Queen Elizabeth to rehab, foils a breakout from the Balmoral Labour Camp and runs a counter-espionage unit of royal lookalikes – the Crown Duals.

Fenton knows better than anyone that without the monarchy UK tourism would instantly collapse. Which is why he calls himself the Royal Flush: because he always cleans up the messes his charges leave behind.

From Henry Morris, the creator of the infamous Secret Tory Twitter account, comes a brilliantly original and deliciously close to the knuckle faux memoir of Britain’s most famous family.

My Review..

This is the secret diary of Fenton Footlicker, Chamberlain of Non-Disclosure Agreements to the Royal Family and shows just to what lengths he has to go to in order to stop the Royals from making fools of themselves. It does so in a riotous romp which had me laughing out loud at the absurdity of some of it, along with nodding my head in agreement when certain parts of the diary seemed to have more than an element of truth attached.

The secret diary starts in December 2021 and continues for the next eighteen months, through the momentous year of 2022, which not only saw the celebration of the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee but also her sad passing in September, the diary thus ending in May 2023 with King Charles III on the throne. Everything that you would want to be included was and I won't spoil it by saying too much as its definitely a book to read without any spoilers from me. However, it's filled interesting snippets of gossip, lots of sly innuendo and chunks of the downright hilarious which really did have me bursting into laughter. 

I was hooked from the start on The Diary of a Secret Royal, the writing is really clever, often irreverent, brilliantly satirical and splendidly observed.

About the Author

Henry Morris is a personal trainer and rave promoter, and author of the infamous Diary of a Secret Tory MP. He lives in Frogmore Cottage.

Last year he released The Diary of a Secret Tory, a parody political memoir described by Caitlin Moran as ‘a landslide victory for modern satire’ and ‘political satire at its blistering, biting best’ by James O’Brien.

Twitter @secrettory12

@HarperCollinsUK @mudlarkbooks

📖 Hist Fic Saturday ~ The People's Princess by Flora Harding

 

On Hist Fic Saturday

Lets go back to...1981

One More Chapter
31 March 2022

Thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Buckingham Palace, 1981

Her engagement to Prince Charles is a dream come true for Lady Diana Spencer but marrying the heir to the throne is not all that it seems. Alone and bored in the palace, she resents the stuffy courtiers who are intent on instructing her about her new role as Princess of Wales…

But when she discovers a diary written in the 1800s by Princess Charlotte of Wales, a young woman born into a gilded cage so like herself, Diana is drawn into the story of Charlotte’s reckless love affairs and fraught relationship with her father, the Prince Regent.

As she reads the diary, Diana can see many parallels with her own life and future as Princess of Wales.

The story allows a behind-the-scenes glimpse of life in the palace, the tensions in Diana’s relationship with the royal family during the engagement, and the wedding itself.

📖 My Review...

It still takes me by surprise to realise that the era of the Princess of Wales is now being written about in historical fiction but then the fascination we have for Diana will never go away. You only have to look at the popular TV dramas, and movies, which continue to speculate about Diana, Princess of Wales.

The People's Princess brings Diana Spencer to life in 1981, just after her engagement to Prince Charles, when she is a lost and lonely figure rattling around the great empty space of Buckingham Palace. Desperate to alleviate her boredom, Diana is intrigued by a portrait she sees on a corridor in Buckingham Palace and wants to know more about Princess Charlotte of Wales, another tragic princess who died at a young age. Intertwining Diana's story as she awaits her wedding with that of Princess Charlotte adds a nice dual time element to the story.

I enjoyed the story, it's a light and easy read, with well researched historical detail to keep alive the authenticity of the story. The author captures well the mood of both historical periods and brings these two tragic, and charismatic, young women to life.

🍜Best Read with...a bowl of cornflakes..

About the Author

Flora Harding began writing over 30 years ago to fund a PhD on the disposal of waste in Elizabethan York, and has juggled fact and fiction ever since. Under various pseudonyms she has written more than 75 novels, histories and other forms of non-fiction and continues to be fascinated by the relationship between the past and the present, whatever she happens to be writing. Flora still lives in York with the city walls and the Minster at the end of her street, and is a freelance project editor as well as an author. Much as she loves the historic city, she yearns too for open horizons, and is a keen walker, preferably in wild, open spaces.

Twitter @AuthorFlora

@OneMoreChapter_

@HarperCollins

Blog Tour ~ Valhalla by Alan Robert Clark

 

Delighted to host today's Blog Tour stop

Fairlight Books
24 September 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of this blog tour.

May of Teck, only daughter of a noble family fallen from grace, has been selected to marry the troublesome Prince Eddy, heir to the British throne. Submitting to the wishes of Queen Victoria and under pressure from her family, young May agrees. But just as a spark of love and devotion arises between the young couple, Prince Eddy dies of influenza. To her horror, May discovers she is to be married to the brother, Georgie, instead, a cold and domineering man. But what can she do? From the author of The Prince of Mirrors comes this gripping account of the life of Queen Mary, one of the most formidable queens of Britain.

What did I think about it...

I can't think that I have ever read a historical novel which had the enigmatic Queen Mary as its central character, she has always seemed to get rather lost as the quiet wife of the more dominant, King George V or as the bewildered mother of the abdicated, King Edward VIII. It's been a refreshing change to have more of an idea about the rather shy May of Teck, who married her dead fiancé's brother because it was convenient  and kept her in the family.

I've seen grainy black and white images of Queen Mary, who always seems such a sturdy upright figure, typically Edwardian in manner and dress, never without a string or two of pearls around her neck and her sensible and rather mundane choice of fashion. What this fictional account of her life does is give us an idea of how she was as a person and how her rather lonely upbringing with dissolute and indifferent parents had such a bearing on how she conducted herself in her royal life.

The author has written a lovely, fictional account of Queen Mary's life, from her time as a young girl, right through to her death in 1953 including some of the more well known moments in the tumultuous  reign of George V, along with the more personal thoughts and feelings of a young woman who was thrust into the royal spotlight. I feel like I really got to know Queen Mary, with all her hopes and fears she was always just trying to do the best she could for her family and her country.

I think that Valhalla is a much needed fictional account of the life of our current Queen's grandmother, which will be of interest, I am sure, to all those readers who enjoy novels about the royal family whilst at the same time appealing to those who just love good historical fiction.

About the Author

Alan Robert Clark was born and educated in Scotland. He briefly attended King’s College in London, before opting instead for a career as a copywriter and creative director with a number of leading London advertising agencies. He has worked as a freelance journalist and, most recently, has ghost-written and coauthored a number of biographies. His novel The Prince of Mirrors (Fairlight Books, 2018) was included in the Walter Scott Prize Academy Recommends List.

Twitter @AlanRobClark #ValhallaNovel

@FairlightBooks

Website