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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful, absolutely superb, 9 Mar 2002
This is quite a wonderful book - gripping, moving, and totally inspiring. I would challenge anyone to get to the end of the book without feeling a huge amount of respect and admiration for the Duchess of York. Whatever you might have thought about her before, you will end up feeling massive sympathy for everything she went through, and seeing Sarah Ferguson for the kind, warm-hearted and loving person she is. Right from the start, she comes across as a very genuine and down to earth person, but hampered by deep seated personal insecurities and low self-esteem. It is suggested that this may have had a root in the divorce of Sarah's parents and her unhappiness at boarding school, but it was made worse by the awful, brutal bullying she received at the hands of the press, and the cynical, shadowy figures behind the scenes at the palace.Its clear that Sarah loved Prince Andrew very deeply, and you can feel her lasting sadness that things didnt work out, mainly because of her husbands continual absence, pursuing his naval career. It seems as if her love and affection for him was never really ever matched by Andrew's commitment to their marriage. He just wasnt really there for Sarah when she needed him. As time went by, Sarah obviously just felt more and more trapped by royal life - the constant pressure, the total lack of privacy and normality, and most of all the fact that she was so cruelly judged by complete strangers who never have the least idea what she was going though. She tells how she only ever felt free in the great outdoors- skiing in the fresh mountain ait, or on horseback in the open countryside. Sarah's love of horses and riding forms an important part of the book, right from her childhood, competing in gymkhanas and showjumping with her beloved Herbert and Spider, right up to her courageous achievement in the Qatar Desert Marathon which forms a dramatic climax to sarah's story. It is these very human insights into herpassionsand personality that make the reader identify with her so strongly. Sarah's love for her daughters and her parents comes across strongly, as does her passion for charity work. Supporting charities is, of course, part of the job description for the Royal Family, but for Sarah it clearly means so much more. You can feel her burning passion and conviction as she writes of her work with Motor Neurone Disease sufferers, for example, or Romanian orphans. What seems so terrible, though, is that this truly wonderful woman, with so much to give and so much life and character, was hounded and harried and driven into personal crisis and depression by the media, and by the cold, unfeeling institution she became part of. The fact that she was able to survive her trials, and rebuild her life, her self-esteem and her happiness after her divorce comes across as a moving and inspiring triumph. Her achievement on horseback in the searing heat of the Qatar desert, when no one believed in her, seems to serve as a metaphor for her acievement in life. At the end of the book, we can only fervently hope that the Ducess of York has at last found the happiness she so deserves.
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by Sarah Ferguson
by Andrew Morton
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