The Quest for Queen Mary
On sale
20th September 2018
Price: £25
* *
‘Very funny and astute . . . a loathly feast for royal-watchers’
‘Almost every page is a gem’
A. N. Wilson, Spectator Christmas Books
‘A complete delight, conjuring up, with a few sharp strokes of the pen, a mad, exotic species from a world gone by’
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
* * *
When James Pope-Hennessy began his work on Queen Mary’s official biography, it opened the door to meetings with royalty, court members and retainers around Europe. The series of candid observations, secrets and indiscretions contained in his notes were to be kept private for 50 years. Now published in full for the first time and edited by the highly admired royal biographer Hugo Vickers, this is a riveting, often hilarious portrait of the eccentric aristocracy of a bygone age.
Giving much greater insight into Queen Mary than the official version, and including sharply observed encounters with, among others, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the Duke of Gloucester, and a young Queen Elizabeth, The Quest for Queen Mary is set to be a classic of royal publishing.
‘Very funny and astute . . . a loathly feast for royal-watchers’
Hilary Mantel, New Statesman Books of the Year 2018
‘Almost every page is a gem’
A. N. Wilson, Spectator Christmas Books
‘A complete delight, conjuring up, with a few sharp strokes of the pen, a mad, exotic species from a world gone by’
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
* * *
When James Pope-Hennessy began his work on Queen Mary’s official biography, it opened the door to meetings with royalty, court members and retainers around Europe. The series of candid observations, secrets and indiscretions contained in his notes were to be kept private for 50 years. Now published in full for the first time and edited by the highly admired royal biographer Hugo Vickers, this is a riveting, often hilarious portrait of the eccentric aristocracy of a bygone age.
Giving much greater insight into Queen Mary than the official version, and including sharply observed encounters with, among others, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the Duke of Gloucester, and a young Queen Elizabeth, The Quest for Queen Mary is set to be a classic of royal publishing.
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Reviews
'Arguably the most riotously funny volume published this year'
'A complete delight, conjuring up, with a few sharp strokes of the pen, a mad, exotic species from a world gone by . . . one of this year's funniest and most eccentric books'
'Superbly edited ... like all the best interviews, these are stories about the hunter circling his prey, and they reveal as much about the interviewer as his subject ... a splendid book'
'Illuminating, intriguing and boundlessly entertaining'
'Intoxicating, frank and often hilarious anthology of interviews . . . what this fine book demonstrates with wit, candour, and unassailable force, is that royal persons are not at all like ordinary people'
'This is a wonderful book: both comedy and social history of the first order. Each page has something both hilarious and surprising. All with an undertow of melancholy - that the diaries have had to wait for so many decades to appear, and that the people in it are so long gone. We are lucky to enjoy their eccentricities and characters afresh.'