The Windsor Diaries: My Childhood with the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret

The WWII diaries of Alathea Fitzalan Howard (1923–2001), an aristocrat and childhood friend of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, provide a captivating behind-the-scenes look at the royal family. Howard, who would have become the Duke of Norfolk had she been a boy, was sent by her estranged parents at age 16 to live with her grandfather and maiden aunt at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Park. A lonely adolescent who imagined that she was Marie Antoinette reincarnated, Howard chronicled her deepening friendship with the two princesses, who spent the war years at Windsor Castle. Howard describes attending Elizabeth’s 14th birthday party and taking dancing and drawing lessons with the sisters, and details her volunteer work at a home for displaced civilians. The diary entries, some only a few lines long, are intimate and endearing. Howard notes the “atmosphere of happy family life” at Windsor Castle, expresses pride in hearing Elizabeth’s voice on “the wireless,” and expresses approval of her friend’s budding romance with Philip Mountbatten. Howard also acknowledges the “heavy nameless cloud” of depression that sometimes settles over her, and reflects on her parents’ unhappiness. Royal watchers and British history buffs will cherish these frank reflections. (May)