Royal biographies are a bit like buses. You wait for one, and then two come along at once. Had Ingrid Seward’s latest book been published before Robert Hardman’s headline-grabbing Charles III, it would be receiving all of the plaudits. Although both were published mere days before the biggest royal news of the year – the King’s cancer diagnosis – they are revelatory in their own way. And My Mother and I boasts the two most important components of any riveting royal read: history and histrionics.
A solid and timely 296-page whip through the life and times of the King and all those who influenced him on his path to the throne, Seward’s book revisits well-trodden paths while offering new insights into the late Queen’s final years and the impact of “Megxit”. Let’s be honest: it’s hard to be original when covering the antics of a 1,000-year-old family, which is why The Crown had to make a lot of it up.
