I don’t know if it’s considered spoilers if the book is discussing headlines, but just in case you want to read it yourself without any knowledge on the content be warned: there are spoilers in this review. This book covers figures that are polarizing, so please try to keep comments respectful. I want this to be a place where we can share ideas without conversations devolving into name calling.
Overall, I give it a 4/5 – engaging, but if you’re looking for anything new here, this is not that book.
The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor – The Truth and the Turmoil is written by Tina Brown, and covers some of the most high profile scandals in the British Royal Family. However, if you’re looking for steamy gossip, or piping hot royal tea, this is not that book. This book isn’t attempting to show any super secret, covered up, behind the cameras drama. Everything covered in this book has showed up in News reports.
Half of the book is generously dedicated to Charles and Camilla. There is some information there that might be of interest if that relationship is something you want to dig into more. I’m not going spend much time on this one because that’s not the tea that most people are after.
There were a few chapter dedicated to beleaguered spare Prince Andrew. Brown attempts to be fair and impartial through out this book, but Prince Andrew appears to be the one royal she struggles to conceal her feelings on. The chapters are laden with exasperation and disappointment as Brown rehashes all of Andrews ill-advised friendships, ultimately culminating in the Virginia Giuffre scandal stemming from his ill-advised connection to Epstein and Maxwell. She doesn’t even attempt to hide anything when she reminds the reader that Prince Andrew is a spoiled brat, and detailed every instance of him throwing a tantrum to get his way, right down to the issue of police security for Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice.
The phone hacking scandal is covered at length- where it was found that tabloids were hacking the phones of now Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry’s exes. This was an interesting subject to broach, especially given that there is a lawsuit pending because Prince Harry, amongst others, alleges that the Daily Mail hacked his phone to listen in on phone conversations, and accessed bank records. How that lawsuit ends, will be interesting to see.
Now everyone is probably wanting to know what Brown says about Meghan, given how polarizing she is. Personally, I found that the author tried hard to give Meghan the benefit of the doubt, reaching out to sources close to Meghan to try and undestand how her actions might have been interpreted differently.
In Brown’s estimation, much of the drama with staffers boiled down to a clash of worlds – on the one hand Meghan, whom expected the palace staff to work like a Personal Assistant or Manager in Hollywood, answering any emails or phone calls at the drop of a dime whether on the clock or not, while on the other hand, the staffers, whom were used to working set hours, and not being obligated to work outside of their office schedule, were completely frazzled and confusticated by this approach. This is the type of culture clash that can ultimately end in disaster. This is about the closest the book gets to addressing the bullying allegations, but it stops short of getting the inside scoop, that, by the time of publication, an internal investigation to these allegations has been ordered by the palace. Many people are angry that the results were buried six feet deep, but given the current tensions between the Royals and the Sussexes, the results of this report are better off not published to the public.
On the whole though, if you are looking for a book that adds value to the headlines that you’ve read, this is not that book. It’s in the same league of “Making Money off of Repeating Yesterday’s News” as Royals at War by Dylan Howard and Andy Tillett. At this point, I’m afraid that the market has become so saturated trying to understand the Royals amid the Sussex split with the Royal Family, that I must conclude that any additional books on the subject have nothing new to offer, unless I see excerpts that offer evidence to the contrary.
Allyson Writes 