'Brisk, lively and wonderfully entertaining' John Banville'Excellent . . . read this book' Literary Review'The best single-volume life of the author available' Irish TimesThe much mythologised author of Decline and Fall, A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited was hailed by Graham Greene as 'the greatest novelist of my generation', yet reckoned by Hilaire Belloc to have ...

The Sunday Times bestsellerA Radio 4 Book of the Week, June 2021‘Highly readable … deserves to take its place among the first rank of modern royal biographies’ Daily Mail‘The narrative is as suspenseful as any thriller. Truly, an excellent read’ Lynn Barber, Sunday TimesMarried for over seventy years to the most famous woman in the world, Prince Philip was the longest-serving royal...

THE EXTRAORDINARY TALE OF SYLVIA BROOKE, THE LAST WHITE RULER OF THE JUNGLE KINGDOM OF BORNEOSylvia Brooke was one of the more exotic and outrageous figures of the twentieth century. Otherwise known as the Ranee of Sarawak, she was the wife of Sir Vyner Brooke, the last White Rajah, whose family had ruled the jungle kingdom of Sarawak on Borneo for three generations. They had their own flag, revenue, postage stamps, and money, as well as the power of life and death over their subjec...

The biography of the last Ranee of Sarawak, born into the aristocracy as Sylvia Brett in 1885 and destined to become 'Queen of the Headhunters'.**'Jaw-dropping ... If you thought White Mischief the last word in English expatriate decadence, you haven't yet met Sylvia and the Brookes' The TimesSylvia Brooke was the consort of His Highness Sir Vyner Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, the last in a bizarre dynasty of English despots ...

"Rich in drama and tragedy" ( The Guardian), here is a mesmerizing account of the extraordinary formative years of the man married to the most famous woman in the worldBefore he met the young girl who became Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip had a tumultuous upbringing in Greece, France, Nazi Germany, and Britain. His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was born deaf; she was committed to a psychiatric clinic when Philip was eight. His father, Prince Andr...

The Sunday Times bestseller‘Highly readable … deserves to take its place among the first rank of modern royal biographies’ Daily Mail'Sure footed and sparkling' Ferdinand Mount‘The narrative is as suspenseful as any thriller. Truly, an excellent read’ Lynn Barber, Sunday TimesMarried for over seventy years to the most famous woman in the world, Prince Philip is the longest-serving ...

*With a foreword by former BBC Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond*The touching and ground-breaking story of the Queen's childhood as told by her nanny, revealing the royal family's life before The Crown.Now, more than ever, the Royal Family's private lives are no longer private. Marion Crawford, or 'Crawfie', as she was known to the Queen and Princess Margaret, became governess to the children of the Duke and Duchess of York in the ...

A Sunday Times number one bestseller in the United Kingdom, this is the intimate and revealing autobiography of Margaret Rhodes, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and niece of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost vanished world of privilege. Royalty often came to stay, and her house was run in the style of Downton Abbey. During the Second World War, she "lodged" at Buckingham Palace while she worked for MI5. She was...

One of Britain's most distinguished biographers turns her focus on one of the most vilified women of the twentieth century. Historian Anne Sebba has written the first full biography by a woman of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor.'That woman', as she was referred to by the Queen Mother, became a hate figure for ensnaring a British king and destabilising the monarchy. Neither beautiful nor brilliant, she nevertheless became one of the most talked-about women of her generation, and ...

How did a photographer who was a relentless playboy, an unashamed womaniser and a leather-clad motorcyclist marry the Queen's sister and become the Establishment figure Lord Snowdon? The brilliantly talented Antony Armstrong-Jones often humiliated Princess Margaret, yet he was compassionate to the causes he cared about. Since his death in 2017, Snowdon still hasn't escaped the limelight, as more and more is revealed about his wild and intriguing life.Written with exclusive access t...

Throughout history, there has been no Monarch like her. She is not merely the oldest Sovereign we have ever known. She is the most worldly. She has travelled further than all her predecessors put together. She has met more historic figures than anyone alive - from Churchill to Mandela, de Gaulle, Reagan and Obama. And today, Queen Elizabeth II is no more contemplating retirement than she was when she came to the throne in 1952. She sits at the head of a hereditary institution so often asso...

*With a foreword by former BBC Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond*The touching and ground-breaking story of the Queen's childhood as told by her nanny, revealing the royal family's life before The Crown.Now, more than ever, the Royal Family's private lives are no longer private. Marion Crawford, or 'Crawfie', as she was known to the Queen and Princess Margaret, became governess to the children of the Duke and Duchess of York in the ...