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Review
"This sympathetic but unsentimental biography explores the paradoxical nature of a fascinating, infuriating woman" (Simon Shaw MAIL ON SUNDAY )
"A fascinating insight into the life of the party girl who became an icon in postwar Britain" (DAILY EXPRESS )
"A sympathetic tribute and an exploration into a tormented soul" (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )
"A fascinating insight into the life of the party girl who became an icon in postwar Britain" (DAILY EXPRESS )
"A sympathetic tribute and an exploration into a tormented soul" (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )
THE LITERARY REVIEW
'She was a witty, intelligent stimulation companion...happily Tim Heald captures all these qualities in his admirably well-balanced biography."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the worst biography I have ever read. Written in dreadful, clunking English for the most part, the book bristles with inaccuracies and nonsense. To take one example, the author states that Princess Margaret met "the equally diminutive John Wayne." It took me a second on Google to establish Wayne's height, six foot four, well over a foot taller than Margaret. My logic was offended several times by similar rubbish.
At times, Heald just copies out reams from the archives, with no commentary or insight. We could all be biographers at that rate!
One last niggle. He says Margaret wished to be known as HRH The Princess Margaret. She insisted , he says, on the PRONOUN 'the.' A man who does not know the definite article from a pronoun is no writer!
At times, Heald just copies out reams from the archives, with no commentary or insight. We could all be biographers at that rate!
One last niggle. He says Margaret wished to be known as HRH The Princess Margaret. She insisted , he says, on the PRONOUN 'the.' A man who does not know the definite article from a pronoun is no writer!
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have to agree with the other reviewers - this is an incredibly disappointing book on all levels. Tim Heald is, apparently, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. On the basis of this particular book, one wonders how he was ever granted such an honour. The prose is appalling - full of endless repetitions, clichés, badly-constructed sentences and (frankly) boring irrelevancies. The insight is nil. No biographer should impose himself on the text, at the expense of the subject, in the way that Heald does. At times (especially in the self-important and utterly pointless "Notes" at the end), the biography seems more about Heald's thought processes and (questionable) research than about Princess Margaret. He complains far too often about how he was not allowed to quote the entire text of letters from Princess Margaret, which he then proceeds to paraphrase (probably at greater length than the original letter!). The letters quoted are, however, of little or no interest or relevance at all. There is far too much of his own opinion of people's behaviour, a huge amount of gossip and tittle-tattle (disapproved of, but then quoted and discussed at length) and far too little of any insight into a complex character. He is far too keen to speak about how he met Royalty, how he had lunch with the Queen Mother and visited Glamis Castle with Lady Strathmore and so on. The apparent purpose is to demonstrate how good his sources are. However, if the product of these sources is utterly trivial, what does it matter? And as for the endless quotations from other people and other books.... Trivial to the nth degree.
The footnotes are absurd, and often wrong (for example, the late Duke of Devonshire is treated as the late Duke some of the time, but held out to be alive at other times, often the footnote simply repeats the main text it is supposed to illuminate, and so on). Names are misspelled - often given different spellings in the same sentence. His use of names and titles is inconsistent.
All in all, a very cheap, shoddy, sloppy, frankly tedious work of no scholarship, insight or interest whatsoever.
I cannot recommend it too little.
The footnotes are absurd, and often wrong (for example, the late Duke of Devonshire is treated as the late Duke some of the time, but held out to be alive at other times, often the footnote simply repeats the main text it is supposed to illuminate, and so on). Names are misspelled - often given different spellings in the same sentence. His use of names and titles is inconsistent.
All in all, a very cheap, shoddy, sloppy, frankly tedious work of no scholarship, insight or interest whatsoever.
I cannot recommend it too little.
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I also waiting months to get my hands on this book.I expected it would be the center piece of holiday reading. It was a huge dissapointment.As royal biographies go, it didn't live up to my expectations & at times I felt myself plodding through it. I felt it didn't give the true essence of Margaret and one certainly couldn't really get to know her.Although her life wasn't easy, I was sorry to feel after finishing this book, that it had also been a failure......how sad, and I think not necessarily true.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Probably one of the saddest royals . . .
A few weeks ago, I saw online a copy of the auction catalog for the estate of Princess Margaret. Bemused, I bought it to look at and only gradually did the sadness of the whole... Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2007 by Parkermann347
not close enough
I was really looking forward to reading this book mainly because like the song 'who danced with the Prince of Wales'I knew someone who knew her well in her Roddy days. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2007 by Mrs. C. Hall
Eagerly awaited, but shockingly disappointing
Five years after her death Princess Margaret's name is still good for
headlines: in these days the papers are full with reports that in 1953 The Queen opposed her sister... Read more
headlines: in these days the papers are full with reports that in 1953 The Queen opposed her sister... Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2007 by Amelrode
HRH an Admirer's view of the book
I looked forward to this book for months and I wasn't dissapointed. As the first biography to come out after the death of the late Princess,I was unsure of what to expect,... Read more
Published on 13 July 2007 by Dean James
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