Book reviews moved

Looking for my royal book reviews, including previously published reviews of Sarah Bradford's Diana and Jerramy Fine's Someday My Prince Will Come? Find them at my new book review blog, The Royal Reader.

Click here for the link to the new blog.
Click here for the review of Diana.
Click here for the review of Someday My Prince Will Come.

Happy Reading!
Ella
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Book Review: Jerramy Fine's "Someday My Prince Will Come"

Read my review of Someday My Prince Will Come by Jerramy Fine at The Royal Reader!

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Book Review: Sarah Bradford's "Diana"

Read my review of Diana by Sarah Bradford at The Royal Reader!

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Photo Essay: "Charles and Camilla Get the Giggles"

I saw this series of pictures, and I just couldn't resist a good photo essay. How often do you get to see the Windsors having this much fun on an official engagement? The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall are attending the Mey Highland Games in Caithness, Scotland. Prince Charles is acting as the honorary Chieftain of the games, a role that his late grandmother, the Queen Mum, fulfilled for years.

And now ... on to the photo essay! Pictures are all from Getty Images (as the watermark shows), taken by Jeff J. Mitchell on August 9, 2008.

Camilla has a hair-raising moment at the games.

Gusts of wind were a feature of the day at the games, and I'd wager that a windy accident (with a wayward kilt, perhaps?) provoked the following reactions from the Duchess, her husband, and the rest of the crowd near her...


Embarrassment...

Tears of laughter...

Giggling...

Laughing harder now...

Guffaws...

And, finally, a bright red face for the heir to the throne.

Looks like the Highland Games were a blast! If all royal engagements were this much fun, surely every family member would have a full slate of activities. ;)

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Eight's a lucky birthday number for Princess Beatrice

Princess Beatrice backstage at a fashion show, preparing to take to the catwalk

Best wishes for a very happy twentieth birthday for Princess Beatrice of York!

Today's a big day all over the globe: the 2008 Summer Olympics are beginning in Beijing. According to those who believe in numerology, today is also a very lucky day for the world, because August 8, 2008 translates to 8/8/8. China chose the day purposely for the opening ceremonies because of its good energy, even starting the festivities at 8:08 PM.

(The Daily Mail, tabloid that it is, has a really interesting piece up today about all of the numerological and astrological ideas surrounding today's date: "Is today, 8/08/08, the luckiest day of the year?")

So, surely for Princess Beatrice, who was born at 8:18 on 8/8/88, today will be a happy and lucky day to turn twenty.

It won't be a big party; the royal granddaughter has already had her coming-of-age birthday bash, choosing to celebrate her eighteenth birthday two years ago (those eights again!) with a costume ball instead of waiting for the more traditional twenty-first birthday party.

The Duke of York, Sarah, Duchess of York, and Princess Eugenie of York celebrate Princess Beatrice's eighteenth birthday in 2006

The York girls were always going to be unconventional; their jovial father and controversial, mischievous mother were undoubtedly going to be fun but non-traditional role models for their two girls. They have managed to keep up a strong family bond even after divorcing more than ten years ago, co-parenting in an apparently cooperative and friendly environment and even living at times under the same roof. In an interview with Tatler (an excerpt can be found on the Telegraph site: "Princess Eugenie: Little Princess Sunshine") to mark her own eighteenth birthday, Princess Beatrice's sister, Princess Eugenie, called the Yorks "the best divorced couple I know ... they just always went out of their way to make us feel loved and secure."


The York princesses seem remarkably unscathed by the incredible press attention the family received when their parents' marriage was revealed to be crumbling in the early nineties. Princess Beatrice has just finished a gap year and will begin fashion studies soon at London's Goldsmiths College. She dates an American, Dave Clark, who works for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company. Her sister has been the one to attract scandal of late, romping about naked at Marlborough College to celebrate the end of exams.

Princess Beatrice listens intently to her father, The Duke of York, at a speaking engagement in January

Even though they're often photographed out at popular London nightspots, both young princesses are also demonstrating a commitment to their royal roles. It was recently revealed by the Telegraph ("Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie to take on more royal charity work") that the girls will begin a more intensive slate of royal engagements with various charities in coming years as a way to "repay" the government for the cost of their security detail.

And now, to mark Beatrice's twentieth birthday, perhaps the lucky day of eights is bringing the family even closer together. For the first time since compromising photographs of the princesses' mother were published during the royal family's summer holiday at Balmoral, Sarah, Duchess of York, has been invited back to the family's beloved Scottish estate.

The Telegraph ("Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, enjoys first Royal holiday in 16 years") reports that Sarah "will spend the weekend at the Royal retreat celebrating Beatrice's birthday," and that she arrived at Balmoral with her ex-husband and her daughters yesterday. An unnamed royal source describes the invitation as "an astonishing breakthrough."

It is yet another in a series of gestures on the part of the Queen, arguably beginning with granting permission for The Prince of Wales to marry his longtime love, Camilla Parker Bowles, that show the monarch's increasing willingness to put aside convention and tradition in order to make her family happier and more united. (Prince Philip, according to the Telegraph, is apparently less willing to make similar concessions -- he will not be at Balmoral for the birthday weekend.)

Beatrice and her royal family: (clockwise from center top): Cousin Harry, Bea, Grandfather, Granny, and Aunt Camilla at Peter Phillips's May wedding

It must be incredibly difficult for Queen Elizabeth to forgive someone like Sarah Ferguson, who caused her son a great deal of pain with her infidelities, but, as with any fractured and complicated modern family, it is a necessary act. Though she is often portrayed as distant and cool when it comes to family affection, gestures like allowing Sarah to come to Balmoral for Beatrice's birthday show that she loves her grandchildren more than probably anyone can know.

So, it's to be a happy, lucky birthday for Princess Bea. As for the celebrations themselves, the Duchess of York herself revealed yesterday, "We're having a very private party. I can't tell you what her present is – that would spoil the surprise."

But surely the young princess already has one of the best birthday presents of all: a day surrounded by the family who loves her -- even if they're less than traditional.


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Can a royal marriage be an open marriage?

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent

This week, the Daily Mail’s Christopher Wilson reported ("Payback time for Princess Pushy as Prince Michael cavorts with a young blonde") on more possible rifts in the marriage of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent – a union which has endured major scrutiny over the years, including several accusations that Marie Christine has been unfaithful to her royal husband. But Wilson’s article purportedly revealed that the princess has not been the only one in the marriage who has sought extramarital companionship. Wilson suggests that Prince Michael may have developed romantic relationships with several women, most recently a Danish socialite, Marianne Krex, whom he escorted to a Royal Ballet performance at the Coliseum in London in June.

Wilson’s fellow Mail reporters Peter Allen and Polly Dunbar first wrote on Prince Michael’s outing with Krex on June 26 ("Prince Michael and a camera-shy blonde"). In their article, Allen and Dunbar hint at the possibility that Krex might be more than just a friend of the Queen’s cousin. One of their unnamed sources remarks, “[Marianne]’s a single woman so is perfectly entitled to hang around with anyone she chooses.” Fellow Stephen Raby employee Emma Pigott, when asked if Krex had disclosed her friendship with the prince to any confidants, explains, “She’s quite private so I doubt she would have told anyone about it.”

According to the Mail, Krex is not the first female companion to accompany Prince Michael to events in place of his wife. Both Wilson’s article and Allen and Dunbar’s piece mention Leonie Freida, with whom Prince Michael attended a Chinese New Year costume party in 2006. Allen and Dunbar also cite as a possible extramarital partner former Royal Ballet principal Bryony Brind, whom the prince reportedly courted in 1994. Wilson adds that, with the upcoming memoirs of one of the prince’s rumored lovers, American artist Lucy Weber, more details of the prince’s adulterous affairs may come to light: “As yet untitled, her book should perhaps be called My Life With Casanova since, for eight years, Ms Weber was the prince's squeeze.” Wilson also includes sordid alleged details about the prince’s trysts, including quotes from a source who claims that he frequently takes women to a curtained-off room above Julie’s, a Notting Hill restaurant.

Wilson’s article – the only one of the two that clearly insinuates that Prince Michael and Krex are conducting a romance, rather than attending social functions as friends – portrays the Prince’s alleged extramarital relationships as a sort of delicious comeuppance for Princess Michael, whose media nickname “Princess Pushy” is used by all three Mail writers. Marie Christine has long been rumored to have romanced a string of lovers since her marriage to Prince Michael, including American Senator John Warner, Texan oilman Ward Hunt, and young Russian Mikhail Kravchenko. Wilson suggests that maybe Prince Michael’s affairs amount to “payback time” for his philandering wife.

Danish socialite Marianne Krex and Prince Michael of Kent

To me, the larger question that is raised by these two Mail articles is, simply: why? Royal gossip is, of course, the bread and butter of British tabloid magazines, but two expose pieces on a royal marriage that many have long assumed is open seem redundant and, frankly, unnecessary. I tend to think that the prince and princess have probably had some sort of mutual understanding about the open nature of their marriage for some time, and the attempts on the part of the Mail to sensationalize that understanding seem designed to exploit the Kent marriage as a way to shock and intrigue readers who subscribe to a more traditional idea of marriage.

Indeed, there are aspects of each article that seem a little problematic. The Wilson article claims that Prince and Princess Michael conduct their affairs to make each other jealous, and that their crumbling union is kept together only because Prince Michael fears a divorce will embarrass his cousin, the Queen. Wilson states, “Friends say that when it comes to the Royal Family, Michael is very loyal to the Queen,” and quotes one of these unnamed friends, who notes, “[Prince Michael] could have kicked [Marie Christine] out long ago … [but] he gave up his place in the line of succession to marry her. It caused a huge stink at the time. He couldn't embarrass the Queen a second time by getting a divorce.”

But, surely, the fact that the Queen has managed to cope with the divorces of royals with much higher profiles – three of her children and her younger sister – would mean that if Prince and Princess Michael really did want to divorce, the Queen would be able to handle it.

It seems more likely to me that Michael and Marie Christine do not want to divorce. They may have been less than discreet about their extramarital relationships (especially the princess, who has been photographed holding hands with at least one of her reported lovers), but the two have not to my knowledge ever feuded publicly about their affairs. Divorces can be painful and public – Marie Christine has already endured one with her first husband, Thomas Troubridge, in 1977 (it was followed by an annulment). Her parents were also divorced. They also have two children, and so they will continue to be a family unit even if they were to legally end their marriage. Dividing royal assets, as we’ve all seen from the York and Wales divorces of the mid-nineties, can also be a royal pain in the backside.

So, if the two wish to see others outside of their marriage, with the consent of both spouses, what’s the problem? Such marriages were the staple of royalty throughout history, and it is only with the fairly recent movement to make royal people more “normal” that keeping lovers has fallen out of fashion – even if Prince Charles wanted to think otherwise during his first marriage. The media has brought royal exploits closer to home for the average citizen, and that average citizen seems to want a moral, upright, and prudent royal family.

Lady Gabriella Windsor and Lord Frederick Windsor

But Prince and Princess Michael are on the fringes of the royal family at best. Their children, Lord Frederick Windsor and Lady Gabriella Windsor, are both private citizens with jobs in the public sector. They are currently 32nd and 33rd in line to the British throne. Prince Michael isn’t in the line of succession at all anymore, having forfeited his place when he married Marie Christine, who is a Roman Catholic (the kids get to stay because they were raised as Anglicans). Their distance from the crown affords them a greater sense of privacy than, say, the Prince of Wales, and because of this, they’ve also got more room in their lives for non-traditional relationship structures.

It all boils down to this: the romantic exploits of a long-married pair of minor royals may be good fodder for tabloids hurting for stories, but as sources of embarrassment for the Queen, they’re surely quite low-level. The only reason these stories are newsworthy at all is that Princess Michael and her husband often seek the public eye, appearing at social events where they will likely be photographed and possible discussed in gossip columns. Even so, they should be free to conduct their marriage however they like – and even if they did decide to divorce, such an action would probably be fairly inconsequential for the monarchy as an institution.

Prince and Princess Michael (right) with The Queen (left) and Charles and Camilla (center)

So, can a royal marriage be an open marriage? The only answer I can come up with isn't really a fair one: it can, so long as the couple in question isn't too close to the throne. Even though Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales both had affairs, an open marriage never would have worked for them, partly because Diana was unsatisfied with sharing her husband's love with Camilla Parker Bowles, and partly because their popularity as a loving couple was so crucial to the monarchy's standing with the people. The "establishment" is lucky that it survived the '90s-era War of the Waleses.

So, while maybe one day the Queen's other grandchildren might be able to have a marriage like Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Prince William likely would not be able to -- the people, if they discovered it, surely wouldn't stand it.
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Kate Middleton: To work or not to work?

Kate Middleton, the longtime girlfriend of Prince William, has taken a bit of a beating in the press of late. From her “boring” fashion sense to her frequent nightclub hopping, the girl just can’t seem to win. And, on top of it, rumors have surfaced that Her Majesty herself has complained that Kate should get a job.

Katie Nicholl of the Daily Mail broke the story in June 2008 ("Queen: Kate should get a proper job before Prince William announces their engagement") that the Queen had told courtiers that she wished that Kate would find work during the interim before a likely royal engagement. The article quotes "sources close to the Queen" who claim that the monarch "was acutely aware that Prince William’s public image could suffer if his girlfriend were not recognised as a working professional in her own right." The article never clearly states why the Queen allegedly believes that a stable career is such an important qualification for a royal bride, but Nicholl does again quote sources who say that the Queen "believes in a modern Monarchy and feels very strongly that the Royals should be leading by example." The reader is left to infer that leading by example, in this case, means working in the public sector - the kind of work that Sophie, Countess of Wessex, did in public relations before marrying Prince Edward.

Though the article focuses on the Queen's alleged problems with Kate's unemployment, Nicholl also quotes unnamed "friends" of Prince William, who reveal that "William realises Kate can’t have a normal life because of all the paparazzi that follow her around, but he does want her to be doing something worthwhile." The friend defends William's sometimes-reputation for partying too much, claiming that he works hard even if it sometimes doesn't seem that way.

The story has some serious and obvious flaws; for one, it seems incredibly doubtful that the tactful Queen would air doubts about her grandson's girlfriend to others even if she entertained them. And the sentiments attributed to Prince William also seem problematic - why would he criticize Kate for partying at nightclubs when he has been photographed doing the same by her side? But Nicholl's article has raised questions that some have long held about Prince William's privileged girlfriend, who does not need to work to make money. Kate's parents own the successful Party Pieces company, which has afforded them and their children financial security. But the question remains: should an intelligent young woman, even one who does not need to work, look for a career? And does a potential future queen really need to have work experience in order to excel when faced with the challenges and pressures of royal duties?

A look at Kate's academic past helps to establish her as an intelligent and capable young woman. By all accounts, Kate has not lived up to her potential. Her teachers and classmates from her years at Marlborough College, the posh school attended by the likes of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York, have given glowing accounts of Kate’s academic prowess. In Andrew Alderson’s Telegraph profile published in May 2008 (“Kate Middleton: the chosen one”), Kate is described as "academic and sporty," having garnered "high-grade passes in 11 GCSEs and three A-levels." A former teacher told BBC News in March 2005 ("Popular girl who caught royal eye") that Kate "excelled in all her subjects and was an A-grade pupil across the board." She finished at St Andrews with a 2:1 degree in art history, and with her connections and her intelligence, she should have been able to establish herself in a steady and profitable career by now.

Kate attends the opening of The Shop at Bluebird, June 2006

But that has not happened. After graduation from St Andrews in 2006, Kate did not find work immediately, though no one knows if she was actively job hunting or not. When she finally was hired, it was by family acquaintance Belle Robinson, co-owner of Jigsaw and The Shop at Bluebird clothing stores. In a recent interview with the Evening Standard ("Kate's not precious. She mucked in at Jigsaw"), Robinson reveals that Kate approached her about a position with the company, explaining, "She genuinely wanted a job but she needed an element of flexibility to continue the relationship with a very high-profile man and a life that she can't dictate. She's going to be dictated to when she's needed and not needed."

Robinson's assessment of the role of a royal girlfriend seems to complicate Nicholl's portrayal of the royal family as champions of serious careers for its future members. If Kate was expected to be "on call" by William, how would he expect her to have a nine-to-five job in the regular world? Robinson depicts a Kate Middleton whose first priority is her relationship, for better or for worse. If dating a prince means having "a life that she can't dictate" - and if dating that prince is the most important thing for her - it seems difficult to expect Kate to work a job for which she is expected to show up five days a week. Therein lies the problem; most of us don't have relationships with princes, and most of us must work to make a living, so it's easy to criticize a young woman who seems to be wasting her time waiting to become a princess. It's tough to know how we would react if we were in Kate's position, with income to spare and frequent invitations to go on holidays and to parties with some of Britain's elite.

Having a job with a regular schedule poses more than just problems for a royal girlfriend's social schedule; it also gives paparazzi the chance to snap regular photographs. Even more than that, a royal girlfriend (or even spouse) working in the public world must constantly be on guard to trust the right people. Richard Eden of the Telegraph cited this in July 2008 as the reason that royal courtiers don't want Kate to work ("Kate Middleton must stay a lady of leisure") - they'd like to avoid a repeat of the Countess of Wessex's Fake Sheikh scandal, in which she revealed her opinions about the British government to a reporter disguised as a trusted client.

Kate helps move stock outside Party Pieces, July 2008

For now, I think Kate has chosen the only job that can possibly work for her life: she's employed by her parents at Party Pieces in Berkshire, reportedly photographing stock for their website. The job allows Kate to spend time on the clock instead of simply indulging in the Sloane Ranger lifestyle which writers like Nicholl assign to her. It also provides her a modicum of protection from invasive photographers (though paparazzi managed to capture images of her organizing stock earlier this week). At Party Pieces, she's able to work in a comfortable and sheltered environment, the kind that would not be possible if she worked in London. She can feel confident that her current employers will not give the kind of interview that Belle Robinson did earlier this week. She can pursue her passion for photography in a constructive way, even if it isn't in the company of the likes of Mario Testino.

Overall, I think that Kate is doing the best she can. When Kate and William announce their engagement, she will be thrust into the spotlight in a way that would make working in the public sector nearly impossible. She's not biding her time, and even if she isn't establishing herself in the career that she might have had if she weren't dating Prince William, she's doing useful work for her family. Surely even the Queen would approve of that.
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