Abstract
In an attempt to explain the phenomenon of Boris Johnson, an anonymous Cabinet minister compared him to Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex. Boris thought his celebrity could prevail over the fusty old parliamentary system, but institutions have a greater instinct for survival. Tina Brown’s book is about the survival of the monarchy despite all the personalities that form it. Only the Queen is perfectly aligned with the abstract. The author ends with a quote from the Queen in her first televised Christmas message in 1957: “I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the people of our brotherhood of nations.” Brown finishes in italics: Never again.
Her words relate to the prologue of the book and the chapter headed Kryptonite. Here is the latest threat to the monarchy, the attack on it by those rogue exiles the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Brown, who has already written the bestselling The Diana Chronicles, sets up the Oprah Winfrey interview as Greek tragedy/satire.
“The Duchess wore smoky tragedy eye makeup, first deployed by Diana, Princess of Wales, in her notorious interview with Martin Bashir and her hair was in a low bun for confessional gravitas. There was much parsing amongst Meghan fans of the white lotus detail (Resurrection!) on the long black Giorgio Armani dress belted high over her baby bump.” As for Prince Harry: “The main theme of his complaint was that his dad, the Prince of Wales, had misread his statement about seeking financial independence and cut off his money.”
I think only Tina Brown could have written this book. She is from film industry stock and understands the cinematic appeal of the British royal family, an understanding that complements a crucial, outsider’s perspective, having made her career in the United States. Much of the book, which covers three generations of the royal family, is a literary version of The Crown, with some additional fascinating revelations.
Queen Mary set the boundaries for royalty, telling a relative: “You are a member of the British royal family. We are never tired and we all love hospitals.” Against this, we measure personal passion and conflict and misunderstanding. The lesson repeated over generations is hierarchy versus individual fulfilment. The spare to the heir is always a problem. Princess Margaret gave up the love of her life, Prince Andrew became blinded by self-importance and false friends, Prince Harry married his mother.
Brown’s dual citizenship is at the heart of this book. She understands how British society and class work, as a former editor of Tatler magazine, but she made her home in America. She can explain the different attitudes to Princess Diana and to the Duchess of Sussex without taking sides. Without Princess Diana, we would probably not have had Meghan.
The author is struck by the Duchess of Sussex’s fundamental miscalculation about her role. She confused Hollywood celebrity with stoical tours of regional public services. She had no idea about the dinginess or the protocol. Brown has some sympathy for her, describing her own visits to palace flunkies while researching her biography of Princess Diana which “took me to fading walk-up flats in far-flung London postcodes of former courtiers and retainers. The smell of their stair carpets always filled me with gloom, a waft of downward mobility and pointless, genteel sacrifice”.
There was also a way of talking to staff: “‘They just couldn’t deal with Meghan’s level of directness,’ a Palace source explained to me. In other words, ‘why didn’t that invite go out?’ rather than ‘I wonder if you could just check if that invitation did in fact go out, if you don’t mind, Allegra’.” The final misunderstanding was urgent demands from the Palace about how to “shape her role.” Her role was to support the Queen.
The author, writing from America, is also more mindful about the national mood in the wake of Black Lives Matter. The British might have been indignant about Meghan’s allegations of racism, but that could amount to complacent flippancy about codes. I remember talking to Brown in the green room of the Today programme before she embarked on this book, when she asked me about anti-Meghanism in the UK. I said I reckoned it was mostly a clash of cultural sensibilities. Having been deputy editor at The Daily Telegraph under the editorship of Charles Moore and the beyond-titles role of Boris Johnson, I could imagine the response of the fabled Peter Simple column to Meghan writing “be strong” on banana skins when she made a visit to sex workers. Brown surveyed me with a dual-citizenship-narrowed gaze.
She can also see the British press with degrees of separation: “Used to publicist-fed entertainment coverage and magazine puff pieces in return for access, American celebrities often find themselves dazed by the sheer demonic creativity of the British press. If you are not the target, the tabloids’ tearing through other people’s reputation is a guilty pleasure of the English breakfast table, like the tanginess of orange marmalade. At their best, they provide pungent demolitions of the pretensions of the rich and pompous. At their worst, they reflect the basest instincts of jeering reactionary trolls.”
This is heartfelt. The other subject on which Brown drops her ambivalence is on the toleration of Prince Andrew. She carried some of the early allegations in the Daily Beast about the paedophile horrors of Jeffrey Epstein and does not have a good word to say about the prince’s greedy naïve friendship with him and the damage he did the monarchy as a trade ambassador.
The person who emerges with most credit, I reckon, is Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. She has been vilified by the press because of Diana and yet she is nearest to understanding the point of being part of the monarchy. It is not about YOU. She cheerfully signs her letters to Prince Charles “old bat” and does not compete, but supports.
Tina Brown, the witty, observant transatlantic journalist, knows what is required for the survival of the British monarchy. And while acknowledging “her voice” is an American imperative, can I add an old-fashioned British observation and say how proud her late husband Harry Evans would have been about the high standard of journalism in this book? This is not new ground, but the selection of quotes is stunning and the weaving together of personal and public is masterly. I very much hope Brown will return to the UK because she is an outstanding journalist: perhaps she could write the biography of Boris Johnson next.
