Beautifully Performed

and very funny. It's a terrific insight into the original book. The monarchies of Europe expose their underbelly in a way that is continually comical and occasionally poignant.

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A must listen for any biography bod!

Great performance, personally, would have liked the male voices a little more distinctively different.. sometimes hard to distinguish who was talking.
Loved the way that the process of writing such a biography was explained in such detail, and then how PH’s privates notes, recordings etc were collared and brought to life to give a ‘behind the scenes- outtakes or personal notes; provided an unusual, ‘ography’ inside the ‘biography!’
Made for an exciting, honest, and highly interesting book! Now on the hunt for more like this!

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Enthralling.

Compulsive listening . I'm on my 3rd repeat and will definitely listen to it again.

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Well curated

I thought how clever it was for Pope Hennessy to make excellent incisive and contemporaneous notes of the interviews. Reflections in 1958 of the first half of the 20th Century in European aristocracy . Well done Hugo Vickers

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A sense of past times.

For me the most interesting thing about this recording is that it didn't make me laugh like reading the book did. Something missing and I'm not sure what it was. Can't say or guess how I'd feel about the recording (Or the book) if I'd heard the recording first. Not that the recording is bad, everyone has gone to a great deal of trouble and it's good to have the different voices. That of the Duchess of Windsor especially. Different points are highlighted as a consequence, the Duchess's racism for example. Casual, as were the anti Semitic attitudes of her class and generation during her thirties heyday. Other stars twinkle, Prince Axel of Denmark for example, in a way they did not in the book. I did enjoy it though. There is still a strong sense of past times as well as past people. Does seem sad, to me, that the UK Royal Family is still neurotic about their German relations; come to that why are our newspapers and/or satirical magazines so keen to harp on about "phil the greek" or that they are all Krauts and similar pathetic witty remarks. Though the Duchess of Beaufort and the Duke of Gloucester still both shine. Completely bonkers the pair of them.

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1 person found this helpful

Great insight

This book contains lots of information, is well written and read. Very happy I bought it.

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Hilariously vivid portraits of many crazy (by their own admission) royals

A book about a book could be perhaps tedious but Hugo Vickers’ editing of a now-unread biography of Queen Mary (by James Pope-Hennessy) is an amusing, and indeed sometimes hilarious, condensation of conversations and interviews with many members of the European and Scandinavian royal families, nearly all descended from Queen Victoria. The gossip, the bitchiness, the scandalous stories, the descriptions of palaces fabulous and in decline, would have definitely amused Queen Victoria. It certainly amused me.

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Reveals QM loved someone other than George V

I listened to this immediately after the Pope-Hennessy biography of Queen Mary, which left me wanting more.
Despite the fact that JPH felt that he “got away” with an honest portrait of QM, it’s clear that he buried certain scoops: that Princess May had been in love with a wealthy aristocrat before marrying into the royal family, and also, when married, with Prince Henry of Battenberg, who married her aunt in law, Princess Beatrice. Moreover, that she almost certainly didn’t love Prince Eddy, who died, but also that she may not have loved her husband. In fact, one courtier believed that she was “terrified” of him.
In the book, JPH also soft-pedals just how terrible George and Mary were as parents.
JPH was also impressed by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and unimpressed with the late Queen Elizabeth. He felt that she and the Queen Mother were very rude in ignoring their German relatives.

This is probably a minority interest publication for anyone interested in European royalty, and/or that period of European history and/or the art of biography. For those it is interesting.

Gareth Armstrong, as always, does a superb job.

Once I’d got over the feeling that I was listening to the Archers, Timothy Bentinck was good too, though I think he mispronounced a few words.

The female narrator was good too and I don’t know why she wasn’t named.

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Lovely and Hilarious

Not what you think. Not like a standard bio. Many narrative based accounts reflecting not only on Mary's life but aristocracy itself. An inside look at what it is to be royal. Their hilarious lack of empathy and compassion for persons and situations and their stoicism when mere mortals might crumble. Fascinating

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4 people found this helpful

Sheer brilliance

An absolute joy to listen to. The use of material fabulous and to have a genuine account of our current Monarch and all that have gone before her was delivered excellently, informative and most important at times hilarious.

At some middle chapter I was thinking that I cannot wait to listen to this again!

Highly recommended if you have an interest in the Royal family. Some previous knowledge advised given the amount of people covered.

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3 people found this helpful