The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor – the Truth and the Turmoil
TINA BROWN
(CENTURY, 592 PP, £20)
Tablet bookshop price £18 • tel 020 7799 4064

Tina Brown has been well connected among movers and shakers for decades, from the time she was at Oxford, interviewing celebrities and dating Martin Amis. He achieved fame with his first novel, The Rachel Papers, an account of how a have-it-all individual was incapable of having genuine relationships. The Palace Papers follows a similar trajectory: seemingly have-it-all royals – the castles, the servants, the tiaras – struggle to find love and fulfilment. This is certainly not a book that questions the point of monarchy, or explores constitutional fine detail. And as for religion, the only moment when it plays a part in this account of the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and her family is to provide a glorious backdrop to weddings.