Ma'am Darling
99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret
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Ma'am Darling
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Narrated by:
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Eleanor Bron
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By:
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Craig Brown
About this listen
The funny and tragic, bestselling biography of The Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, perfect for fans of Netflix’s The Crown.
A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR • A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR • A DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘I honked so loudly the man sitting next to me dropped his sandwich’ Observer
She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando clam up. She cold-shouldered Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor.
Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. John Fowles hoped to keep her as his sex-slave. Dudley Moore propositioned her. Francis Bacon heckled her. Peter Sellers was in love with her.
For Pablo Picasso, she was the object of sexual fantasy. “If they knew what I had done in my dreams with your royal ladies” he confided to a friend, “they would take me to the Tower of London and chop off my head!”
Princess Margaret aroused passion and indignation in equal measures. To her friends, she was witty and regal. To her enemies, she was rude and demanding.
In her 1950’s heyday, she was seen as one of the most glamorous and desirable women in the world. By the time of her death, she had come to personify disappointment. One friend said he had never known an unhappier woman.
The tale of Princess Margaret is pantomime as tragedy, and tragedy as pantomime. It is Cinderella in reverse: hope dashed, happiness mislaid, life mishandled.
Combining interviews, parodies, dreams, parallel lives, diaries, announcements, lists, catalogues and essays, Ma’am Darling is a kaleidoscopic experiment in biography, and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.
‘Brown has been our best parodist and satirist for decades now … Ma’am Darling is, as you would expect, very funny; also, full of quirky facts and genial footnotes. Brown has managed to ingest huge numbers of royal books and documents without losing either his judgment or his sanity. He adores the spectacle of human vanity’ Julian Barnes, Guardian
©2017 Craig Brown (P)2017 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Lee
- 20-12-18
Betwixt and between with this one.
I did enjoy this book and yes it did have some interesting bits which had me running off to Google but IMHO most of it should be taken with a pinch of salt. I found the 'What if?' bits nauseating espically the 'marriages' and the imaginary conversations really have no place in a biography.
So on the whole it filled a few hours while doing Christmassy stuff. Bought in the sale so didn't waste a credit.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- M. Ponsonby
- 05-02-19
Ruined by the reader
Find the imagined marriages so annoying. Listening and suddenly hearing she married Townsend and had two children by him. I had to re-listen to this bit thought I had mis-heard. So how much is truth and how much is fiction in this story? . Not too keen on the narrator either, but lots of people love her voice. Was Margaret married to Picasso or not? I thought it was true but after the Townsend bit I wonder. Pity as this book could be so interesting without the imagined bits!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Maureen Weaver
- 04-12-17
A life unfulfilled
Born into immense wealth and privilege with apparently no real purpose. Princess Margaret is portrayed as a demanding, spoilt, arrogant, selfish woman, with no thought for anyone but herself. However, the other side of the coin is a lonely, depressed and sad woman. such a shame and such a waste of a life. A true product of her environment.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr MJ
- 02-05-20
Hilarious and great narration
A wonderfully hilarious book with fabulous narration. Presented in an enjoyable format, the 99 stories allow glimpses into the life of Princess Margaret that are as revealing as they are entertaining.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- D. Gillespie
- 20-01-19
Didn't live up to expectations
I knew before starting that this was an eclectic set of memories, encounters and recollections but some felt like rehashed media reports. There were a few things I didn't know but overall nothing new.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 22-06-18
An interesting insight
Narrator was good...... very engaging. An interesting insight to Princess Margaret and those around her
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Buyer
- 10-09-22
Interesting.
Clearly she was nothing but a spoilt and nasty person who was rude, promiscuous and haughty. It is laughable that she took offence at Diana and Fergie for embarrassing the Crown after her own lifestyle.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Victoria
- 14-10-17
Repugnant royal
This is fabulous! Read wonderfully by Eleanor Bron. I can't recommend this highly enough.
i will never look at those rubber sealed jars in the same way again.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Shelagh Robinson
- 06-11-17
What a monster.
Fascinating look at Margaret R o se. What a monster she was but how ill served by her family and so called friends. Could have done without the whimsy marriage to Picasso, friendship with the Duke and Duchess of Wi indsor and what monsters they were too ,. The helicopter ride over Coleridge's House was irritating and unnecessary. Lots of faults but so different from the usual sycophantic royal biography. Why on earth the family were so horrified by Diana after years of this is a,mystery - but royal blood I suppose.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Alison
- 16-04-18
Great Listen - stranger than fiction!
I thought I would like her. But in fact, I just ended up feeling really rather sorry for her - and for everyone who had to cope with this tiny tyrant.
The approach of this book - gossipy snippets, really, is perfect. I can see why she often behaved so badly, for she was badly treated - almost sacrificed by The Family and Government - but at the same time, it left me feeling that someone ought really to have dealt with her appalling behaviour from time to time!
Hugely entertaining, often sad, beautifully narrated.
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1 person found this helpful