During the childhood years of Queen Elizabeth II, one of the most famous women who ever lived, a young governess helped shape her into the icon the world knows today.
- ASIN : B08273HPGK
- Publisher : Berkley (August 25, 2020)
- Publication date : August 25, 2020
- Language : English
- File size : 2147 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 431 pages
Jan –
An emotional rollercoaster
I loved the wonderful descriptions of Marion’s relationship with the young princesses, Lillibet and Margaret. But it was the loss of their love that was hard to read.
L –
Great read!
Great read. Really enjoying
jc –
Explains Marion Crawford and The Queen Mother Perfectly
Really enjoyable novel about The Queen Mother and how she behaved and treated her staff and her daughters, Elizabeth & Margaret as youngsters, their education (and lack of it); and how Marion devoted her life to Elizabeth – and in the end, lonely and alone, was tossed indifferently aside with an unimpressive pension, tiny nottingham cottage instead of a somewhat larger grace & favor residence within the KP “Aunt Heap”; and excoriated so unfairly and unkindly for selling her sugary memories for money. Gave good insights into the rest of the family as well. Really looking forward to anything else the author writes – she portrays Royalty in all their honest details very well!
Amazon Customer –
Well done historical fiction
I read several disparaging reviews that referenced the real life memoirs entitled “The Little Princesses:” As fiction The subject matter drew me in and entertained me enough to further educate myself by purchasing the real life account. I would call that successful fiction.
In these days of covid and war it was an educational and well written diversion that I enjoyed immensely.
Angela Sanford –
A Beautiful Novel!
Author Wendy Holden has written a spectacular novel that shows the life of Marion Crawford, governess to Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose. Giving up the chance of finishing her teaching education and most importantly, the chance of having a husband and family of her own,Marion spent fifteen years with the royal family, thinking of the young girls as her own. After Elizabeth’s marriage to Prince Philip, Marion is soon asked to retire and leave the only “family” she has had since the death of her mother. I highly recommend this novel!
S. A. Mears –
Disappointed
This book was disappointing. I have read Marion Crawford’s book The Little Princesses. This book bears no resemblance to the voice in that book. It seems to me the author imposed post war sentiments on an early 20th Century person. In addition little factual inaccuracies crept in that makes me doubt any serious research. For just one example, the description of the Queen’s engagement.ring is inaccurate. A fact easily checked. Perhaps if I had not read Ms. Crawford’s book I might have liked this one better.
Something something –
Full of big, fat pokies, barely scraped from truth
This is a pretty misleading book, full of some of the biggest untruths about the Royal Family and Marion Crawford ever written. First, despite her inexcusable lack of discretion about the princesses’ lives, despite her ironclad NDA, Crawford would have been horrified at the nippling and cupping in this ridiculous disguised crotch novel. Marion Crawford never have brought play clothes to the princesses. She discussed at length in her books and diary how much she spent on her own wardrobe but admitted that she made the stupid error of having her dresses made in the same shade of blue as Queen E the Q Mum.
Uncle David was an avowed Nazi who promised loyalty to Hitler if Germany won the war. Hitler promised to style David and Wallis as King and Queen answerable to him and they both signed on. he was a traitor who hated, absolutely HATED, Jews and thought the Nazis were grand and cool. Not because of his own German roots — because he thought the Nazis were right.
This was a badly done, school girlish, not very well researched hack job. If you want to know what Crawford thought before she decided to cash in, read The Little Princesses.all the credible dialogue in this book is cribbed from The Little Princesses, anyway.
Mrs. Cynthia C. Roelofs –
Good story well told
I like my history lessons through historical fiction. This was a good one. The royals certainly did a good job keeping this real woman out of records.
Barca6 –
Not what I thought it would be
The title is The Royal Governess: A Novel of Queen Elizabeth II’s Childhood. I thought this would be about Queen Elizabeth; instead, a lot of it was about the governess. Disappointing
C M Holmes –
Wonder how much is fact vs fiction
While I haven’t finished the book yet, so far I’m captivated by the attention to detail. Those little Princesses did not have an easy childhood- they were often in a fishbowl- can’t wait to finish
It’s nice to hold a real book