THE SECRET ROYALS
immediately qualifies as a must-buy, but thankfully there is considerably more to Aldrich and Cormac’s book than simply a flattering index. It begins in the reign of Queen Victoria – after a dutiful acknowledgement of the so-called ‘intelligencers’ such as Frances Walsingham who were used by Elizabeth I – and ends with a considered and indepth chapter entitled ‘The Diana Conspiracy’, which, as its name might suggest, explores many of the theories and intrigues around Princess Diana’s death. It is a long book at over 600 pages, but an enthralling one. Ideas are proposed in moderate, rather than sensational, fashions and the cumulative effect is quite fascinating.
By Richard J Aldrich & Rory Cormac (Atlantic, £25)
“Aldrich and Cormac use well-worn but apposite documents, recently unearthed sources and their own informed speculation to evoke a difficult, uneasy period between the early 30s and the accession of Elizabeth II to the throne” The royals have traditionally operated as rather a secretive organisation. Although the likes of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle are partially open to the public and a redacted form of their accounts is published annually, it remains undeniably true that we don’t have much of an idea of their activities, especially those that take place behind closed doors. When Prince Philip died recently, details of his will were sealed for 90 years, by which time everyone reading this will be dead themselves, and so any revelations about especially surprising bequests – such as to his ‘riding companion’ Penelope Knatchbull – will have little more shock value than we might find in the affairs of George V. Therefore, it’s little surprise that the security services and MI5 (as well as the FBI, who make numerous cameos here) have traditionally had an ambivalent relationship with an unaccountable and unelected organisation that nevertheless possesses enormous wealth and power. (I’d be fascinated, incidentally, to see Aldrich and Cormac produce a similar book about the relationship between another
Reviewed by Alexander Larman
O
f the author Anthony Powell it was said that he would judge the memoir of one of his peers, friends or nemeses by whether he was in it. When the book was published, he would stroll over to Heywood Hill and glance in the index. If his name was to be found there – however vituperative the context – he would purchase it. But if it was absent, it would be replaced upon the shelf and no further heed paid to it. I have yet to find the contemporary equivalent from my peers – most of whom seem curiously reluctant to write the kind of autobiographies in which I might feature – but I was very pleased, not only for my last book The Crown in Crisis to be cited in Richard Aldrich and Rory Cormac’s excellent study of the relationship between the Royal Family and the security services, but indeed to appear in the index myself as a source. Judged purely on the Powellian criteria, this
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