Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled
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Elegant and sophisticated biography of Princess Margaret, the controversial sister of Queen Elizabeth II, the Princess Diana of her day
‘A fascinating insight into the life of the party girl who became an icon in postwar Britain’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘She was a witty, intelligent, stimulating companion – happily Tim Heald captures all these qualities in his admirably well-balanced biography’ LITERARY REVIEW
The almost universal conception is that the life of Princess Margaret (1930-2002) was a tragic failure, a history of unfulfilment.
Tim Heald’s vivid and elegant biography portrays a woman who was beautiful and sexually alluring – even more so than Princess Diana, years later – and whose reputation for naughtiness co-existed with the glamour. The mythology is that Margaret’s life was ‘ruined’ by her not being allowed to marry the one true love of her life – Group Captain Peter Townsend – and that therefore her marriage to Lord Snowdon and her well-attested relationships with Roddy Llewellyn and others were mere consolation prizes. Margaret’s often exotic personal life in places like Mustique is a key part of her story.
The author has had extraordinary help from those closest to Princess Margaret, including her family (Lord Snowdon and her son, Lord Linley), as well as three of her private secretaries and many of her ladies in waiting. These individuals have not talked to any previous biographer. He has also had the Queen’s permission to use the royal archives.
Heald asks why one of the most famous and loved little girls in the world, who became a juvenile wartime sweetheart, ended her life a sad wheelchair-bound figure, publicly reviled and ignored. This is a story of a life in which the private and the public seemed permanently in conflict. The biography is packed with good stories. Princess Margaret was never ignored; what she said and did has been remembered and recounted to Tim Heald.
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Additional information
| Publisher | W&N (10 July 2008) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 368 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0753823772 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0753823774 |
| Dimensions | 13.97 x 2.86 x 21.91 cm |
by Amazon Customer
Great read,a very complex woman
by Mr Neil Bond
There is sad undertone to this biography and a sense of a lack of fulfillment. Having said that, it is very well written and I was gripped by it throughout.
by Amelrode
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 becoming regent for Prince Charles in a case of her premature death and that his honour would go to Prince Philip.
Official royal biographer Tim Heald’s biography, Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled, was eagerly awaited after being delayed several times.
However, I was mildly shocked about the content and in the end quite disappointed.
Mr. Head had access to the royal archives and report in extenso about the engagements of the Princess, the preparations for it and how these engagements went. He seems to be astonished about the detailed preparations and the fixations with seemingly minor aspects. These information are quite interesting to read about, but they remain annedotical, are not put into perspective and are not evaluated at all. No word that The Princess Margaret was not known for being a pretty hard working member of the Royal Family.
The Townsend episode is not fully examined, but more or left to what one knows anyway. The new documents showing doubts whether she would have had to renounce her royal status, the question whether she was fully informed (or what she did to inform herself?) etc. are left untouched.
The reader only finds contradicting views of Lord Snowdon (Townsend affair overrated) and others (most important issue in her life). But the author does not investigate or even comes up with his own views. The marriage with Lord Snowdon and the breakdown of the marriage are not fully explored either.
There is nothing whatsoever on the position of Princess Margaret on the ups and downs of the Royal Family during her life time, like on the Charles-Diana saga.
There is nothing really on the relationship with her The Queen, The Queen Mother or any other members of her family.
Extremely astonishing is that there is hardly anything on her relationship with her son and daughter and their families.
This is definitely not the last word on the Princess, a woman who seems to have it all and created nothing out of it.
Maybe it is still to early to write about her as too many people closely involved with her ware alive.
I am sorry but I expected more from Tim Heald. Nice try, but I hope he will try harder in the future.
by C W. Raper
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.
by jennieb90
Great book!
by Busy Bee
This book arrived in very good condition and has been a pleasure to delve into in connection with my research for a work of fiction. The author is to be commended on his honesty and attention to detail. His book helped me create a much fuller and fairer picture of a lady I thought I knew about, but didn’t actually at all.
by L. Bird
Watching The Crown has piqued my interest in understanding the lives of members of the Royal Family. Princess Margaret and her relationship with Peter Townsend, her marriage to Lord Snowdon, and latterly Roddy Llewellyn, made me want to understand this person and the nebulous role in the nation’s opinion. I was hoping for a gripping read, one that would give you an idea of her as a daughter, sister, wife, mother and friend. Instead it was a badly written series of chapters, (written at speed?), and poorly put together. Very dry prose, and no photos whatsoever! Not recommended. Choose one of the other biographies instead.
by Sun Hat Lover
I found this boringly written, in the style of a diary. The facts were there, but it was a flat read, and the subject HRH, didn’t come across as a very generous of spirit human being, really quite spoilt. Life in a palace not all its cracked up to be I suspect.