David Chipp
Soap Power
Queen Marie of Roumania died in 1938 at the age of 62, sadly just missing the television age which I think she would have loved. She would have been wonderfully indiscreet at press conferences and on chat shows for, as she admitted in the preface to her autobiography, ‘all my life I have been almost dangerously sincere’.
I believe, too, that she would have adored ‘Dallas’ and ‘Dynasty’, seeing in them a pale reflection of her own life which was more improbably romantic and exaggeratedly dramatic than any soap opera. (Come to think of it, I find it strange no one has done a mini series on her life).
Marie, known to her myriad relations scattered across the courts of Europe as Missy, was a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria and of Tzar Alexander II. During her life she saw the map of Europe redrawn several times as the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires collapsed and Russia exchanged one type of
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
This spring, give the gift of reading.
Give a friend a gift subscription to Literary Review for only £33.50.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/spring21/
'It’s long been known that there is an optimum reproductive window and that women enjoy a considerably shorter one than men. For both sexes this window is opening and closing earlier than it used to.' (£)
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-end-of-babies
Sixty years ago today, the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter outer space. @Andrew_Crumey looks at his role in the space race.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/one-giant-leap-for-mankind