cover image Windsor: A Dynasty Revealed

Windsor: A Dynasty Revealed

Piers Brendon. Trafalgar Square Publishing, $29.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-340-61013-8

Lest the bountiful gossip about Charles, Di, Fergie et al. lead anyone to think that British royal scandal is a recent novelty, Brendon (Eminent Edwardians) and Whitehead serve up a cornucopia of titillating, well-documented episodes from the Windsor family closets. Besides stylish recaps of obvious topics-Edward VIII's abdication, Princess Margaret's romance and, inevitably, the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales-the book, based on research for a PBS miniseries, of which Whitehead was executive producer, offers unflattering views of almost everyone. George V, who became the first Windsor in 1917 when he changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to distance himself from his many German relatives, is shown also to have distanced himself-fatally-from his Romanov cousins when they, too, might have embarrassed him. The authors devalue even the vaunted staunchness of George VI's family during WWII. Credible and cold-eyed, the authors predict the continuation of the Windsor dynasty, to be paralleled, no doubt, by continued exposes. Photos. (Feb.)