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Books: The Wind(sor)s of change
In her latest book, award-winning journalist Tina Brown explores the dramatic saga of the British royal family
The gift that keeps on giving. That’s how Tina Brown, award-winning journalist, editor and author, describes the British royal family’s propensity to be a seemingly endless source of captivating, often dramatic stories. She has drawn on these gifts for her latest book, The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil. Speaking to HT Brunch on a video call from London, Brown, who has been covering the royal family for over 40 years, said her fascination for this subject lies in the fact that it is a family drama, a saga with constant arrivals and departures. The saga is all the more engaging for playing out against the backdrop of castles in the Scottish countryside, 700-room palaces, royal yachts and hunting grounds.
Brown’s editorship of Tatler magazine, beginning in 1979, coincided with the arrival of the then young and unknown Lady Diana Spencer on the scene. It marked the beginning of a new era for the House of Windsor. “As staff of a celebrity magazine, we came to know her well and, in fact, became the house organ for the engagement and the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana,” Brown says.
She was perfectly placed then to write The Diana Chronicles in 2007, a book that attempted to unravel the life of a woman who continued to be a mystery even 10 years after her death. The Palace Papers picks up from there, allowing readers to peek into the royal family, noses pressed to the glass.
Diana and sons
Despite questions about the relevance of the monarchy, it holds sway at least among the British people and is a symbol of national identity and national pride, Brown says. Every time pundits write about the monarchy being irrelevant, they have been proved wrong. She points out that some sections of the media preferred to dismiss the Queen Mother’s passing, for instance, as the departure of a dusty old dowager. But then, the public turnout to bid farewell to her rivalled the crowds at Winston Churchill’s funeral, and they were gobsmacked. So, those questioning the relevance of the royal family were completely mistaken. The global interest in the weddings of Princes William and Harry had the same effect, Brown says.
Her narrative in The Palace Papers begins in the post-Diana era when “a deep dullness had returned to the Royal Family, a dullness for which they, if not the tabloid newspapers, were extremely grateful. The lack of excitement around them was hard won. Ever since the death of Diana in 1997, the Queen had made it clear to all those who advised her that it could never happen again—the ‘it’ being Diana’s explosive celebrity…”
Brown says she had known Diana for a long time, having met her as a blushing, young woman ready to marry Charles in 1981 and observing her journey there onwards. In the book, Brown describes a meeting with Princess Diana in New York in 1987. “She strode in, in her green Chanel dress, poised, accomplished, a global superstar. People know her as beautiful in photographs, but in real life she was far more beautiful and charismatic,” Brown says.
Writing about the post-Diana era, Brown dwells on the difficulties Princes William and Harry faced while barely in their teens: the falling apart of their parents’ marriage, the scandals that made it to the tabloids and tell-all books and the devastating death of their mother in a car crash. Consequently, they grew close and protective of each other in the bubble they inhabited. That has changed in recent years.
“The relationship has taken a beating and they are somewhat estranged,” Brown says. “I’d like to think it’s not forever. After William married and started his own family, Harry began to feel like Bridget Jones, left out of the bourgeois dream.”
According to Brown, Prince Harry found that the assignments handed to him when he returned from the army didn’t match his accomplishments and his star power.
“The brothers were raised as equals, but they couldn’t really be. That is how it is when you are second in line. So, Harry felt his worth was not being acknowledged. I know that he hated the construct and being relegated to a life he did not choose,” Brown says.
Brown is of the view that Meghan is being unfairly tagged as the person who took Harry away. “I feel Meghan just solidified the feelings Harry was already grappling with. She validated his sense of wanting to break away,” she says. “One of Harry’s advisers told me in confidence that they always knew he would leave one day.”
The Camilla conundrum
While Megxit underlined the impossibility of Harry ever ascending the throne and William judiciously prepares for the role, their father may well be an interim monarch. Brown predicts Charles will be a surprisingly accomplished one.
“There are low expectations and that will help him. He is aware that there is no beating the extraordinary record of his mother, who has been so dutiful and exemplary. She has not made a mistake during her reign, except during the Diana crisis when she was out of step with her people,” Brown says.
Prince Charles’s credible, prescient passion for addressing the climate crisis and the environment is at last in sync with what most people see as the existentialist threats of our time, she adds. “If ever there was a time for him to take over, it’s now,” she says.
When Charles is eventually crowned King of England, Camilla Parker-Bowles will be his Queen Consort. Brown’s admiration—and empathy—for her comes through in the book. She says, “Camilla went through so much abuse and brutal treatment. It was decades of being called names, of her appearance being mocked. It was really dreadful. But she never complained and kept her sense of humour through it all, without being self-righteous or victim-y about it. She was stoic and stoicism is a quality that the British like.”
There has been a remarkable turnaround by the Queen herself, Brown points out. She had earlier wanted Charles to break up the relationship. But he was steadfast. The Queen agreeing to their marriage and then granting Camilla the title of Queen Consort is an amazing validation of Camilla and what she stands for. “It also tells us that positions can be earned in the royal family,” says Brown. “It’s happened with Kate now, too. From people asking how can a middle class girl become Duchess of Cambridge, the question now is, what will the House of Windsor do without Kate? I believe Camilla and Kate are now the bedrocks of the future of the monarchy.”
Queen of hearts
One of the challenges for any member of the royal family is surviving the tactics of the British tabloids and the paparazzi. Brown has devoted a chapter to the subject.
“I was shocked when I reported that chapter,” she says. “It’s horrific what they put the family through. I think it’s a bit less barbaric now. The outlets are less well funded and the power of the tabloids is diminished, compared to what it was in the ‘90s.”
The change, she believes, has also been enabled by social media. Kate is now the family chronicler, releasing carefully controlled and cautiously titled photos of Princess Charlotte’s birthday, for instance. This wasn’t possible in the ‘90s.
So, with the undying interest in the royal family and its doings, does Brown see the book become a movie or a television series?
“The Crown is doing just that,” she says. “It’s enthralling entertainment.” And, yes, it’s true there is increasing discomfort in the royal family as the series grows closer to today, moving on from the palmy days of Elizabeth as a young queen.
Brown says individual chapters of her book could become movies or mini-series. Even some of the minor characters are fascinating, she says. She clearly enjoyed writing about the trial of Princess Diana’s butler, Paul Burrell. He was accused and found guilty of stealing from Kensington Palace. “A search of the house exposed him immediately. It was a royal Amazon warehouse stuffed with paintings, photos, drawings and china belonging to the Princess of Wales,” Brown writes in her wonderfully readable style.
She says she found the downstairs culture very illuminating; it said so much about the upstairs.
She spent the two years of the pandemic researching for this book, making lots of Zoom calls. “When I jauntily wrote the book proposal, I hadn’t realised what a heavy undertaking it was. I got deeply drawn into the saga and had to choose which moments of the story to tell. I also got quite attached to some of the characters,” she says.
Does she have any favourites among the royals? ‘It would be a toss-up between the Queen and Camilla. As women get older, they acquire this patina, this richness. While the Queen is known for her sense of duty and impeccable ways, she’s also very funny. Her sense of humour is astringent and not for the faint-hearted,” Brown says. “And I quite like Harry too, he has a beguiling quality to him.”
From HT Brunch, July 2, 2022
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