Edward Chancellor
All in Rancour, Envy And Tendentiousness
Divine Right: The Inglorious Survival of British Royalty
By Richard Tomlinson
Little, Brown 384pp £17.50 order from our bookshop
When the Independent was launched in 1986 one of its better ideas was to resist the temptation to cover its pages with articles and ‘exclusives’ about the lives and loves of members of the Royal Family. At the time this may have been due to a desire to differentiate itself from The Times, where, if I remember correctly, Princess Michael of Kent was appearing more frequently than Robert Maxwell was in the Daily Mirror. However, this admirable principle was eroded over the years and now an Independent journalist, Richard Tomlinson, has added to the seemingly endless pile of books on the Royal Family (as opposed to the Monarchy). The style of the book, in journalistic terms, might be characterised as the Daily Mail meets the Guardian: this is tittle-tattle with a social conscience.
From the subtitle of the book one might conclude that Tomlinson was attempting a history or analysis of the endurance of the monarchy. However, the author has eschewed such dull stuff and instead offers to the reader a catalogue of royal indiscretions from Edward VII to the annus horribilis. The
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
We've extended our February offer for a week, meaning you can still get a six-month subscription for only £19.99.
Click below for details.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/literaryfebruary/
'McCarthy’s portrayal of a cosmos fashioned by God for killing and exploitation, in which angels, perhaps, are predators and paedophiles, is one that continues to haunt me.'
@holland_tom on reading Blood Meridian in the American west (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/devils-own-country
'Perhaps, rather than having diagnosed a real societal malaise, she has merely projected onto an entire generation a neurosis that actually affects only a small number of people.'
@HoumanBarekat on Patricia Lockwood's 'No One is Talking About This'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/culturecrisis