This is a behind-the-scenes look at the Windsors, or the Germanic family that changed its name during WWI so it would appear more British. It's a long book but if you're interested in the English ruling royals and their offspring, this is one volume to peruse.

In the summer of 1980 Prince Charles reconnected with 19 year old Lady Diane Spencer. He dated briefly her older sister in 1977. Diane was practically more British than Charles was - the 16th cousin from King James I, five lines of descent from Charles II, related to Napoleon and related to 8 American President's including George Washington. What was possibly the most attractive feature of Diane was she was a virgin with practically no past. Everyone seemed to want them to marry - Charles felt the pressure most keenly from his father and would blame him years later when things began to go astray. Two months after Charles and Diane were married she was pregnant. Then came an unexpected plot twist. From beyond the grave, Fr Fehily - the M and the Q to our Leinster Schools Senior Cup-winning team - sent us all on one final mission . . . When King George died Princess Elizabeth became Queen. The last curtsy she made was when she paid her respects to her father. Once Elizabeth became Queen she treated Philip differently. He was no longer the dominant, take charge husband - he suddenly became unmanned. She even refused his last name when she was Queen. She would become Queen Elizabeth II and would be compared to Elizabeth the I. The distinction she drew upon was that Queen Elizabeth I was blessed with neither husband or children and was never able to leave her shores. Queen Elizabeth II wrapped herself up in marriage and motherhood. In the years she would become respected as a dutiful monarch and most traveled but would fail as a wife and mother. Her priorities became the monarchy, her marriage and last her children. In the early years of her marriage faced with the choice between her husband or her children - Philip won out. Their children were raised like how the Queen was raised, by nannies. Their marriage produced 4 children. By 1992 all of the Queen's children who were married were legally separated and headed for divorce. Kitty Kelley always delivers. If you want to read about the juicy scandalous lives of the rich and famous then you can't go wrong with Ms. Kelley.Fergie and Diane may not have been the best of friends during their marriages however during their separations they took the same comfort in psychiatrists, both were on anti depression, both had taken on lovers who would betray them for money. They also both turned to Astrologers, numerologists and spiritualist for help. Many of these people would sell them out. They didn't know who to trust. This application or web based wrapper app, used to be a great deal better than it is today. You can tell that proper updates have not had a lot of thought go into them if at all. Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret had a very sheltered childhood. Princess Elizabeth knew she was becoming groomed to be Queen - even Margaret knew it. Margaret was a bit more wild of the two girls. The first act of independence from her parents was when Elizabeth accepted Prince Philip's proposal to marriage, much to her father's dismay. The King had to give permission to his daughter for her marriage. He finally relented to his daughter's wishes when Philip changed his name, nationality and his religion. Seriously would this even take a developer one afternoon to fix the bug and make it work in dark and light mode?... kind of a high priority to be able to see the one and only thing folks use the app for. Princess Anne, although younger, married first to a commoner Captain Mark Phillips. Captain Philips was summoned to the Palace to provide a sample of semen - since marriages were solely to produce heirs. Once again Captain Mark Philips declined a title and a work position however he did agree to 500 acre estate.

I personally would have liked to learn about the Queen's parents and grandparents. Kelley only briefly covers the Queens parents but she hints at even more juicy dirt involving them.

Personalized picks at your fingertips

The Palace press office announced the formal style for Lady Diana Spencer. “Following the wedding, she will be known as Diana, the Princess of Wales,” said an aide. “She’s not Princess Diana because she was not born a princess, and she’s not the Princess Diana because only children of the sovereign are entitled to ‘the’ before their title.” Americans, who did not understand titles or their subtleties, called her Princess Di.” Or how about this vivid description of Prince Charles, allegedly from a classmate: “He walks into a room like a dark cloud in a double-breasted suit.” according to a 1972 Harris poll, [most Britons] believed that it was the monarchy that set the standards of morality for the country, even more so than the church. Such confidence in the Crown prompted the Queen to send a "gracious message" to Parliament asking for a pay rise. Although one million people were out of work at the time, no member of Parliament, except one, wanted to deprive the sovereign of her tax-free allotment from the Civil List. " Obviously Kitty Kelley spends the majority of the book on the two most scandalous members of the royal family at that time Diana and Sarah Ferguson. I personally found Fergie the most fun to read about. She's wild! Now, it appears that much info comes from unnamed sources, many of whom seem to be a little angry and condescending. Downstairs wants to be upstairs, so to speak. I'm sure Kelley did her research, but I always take everything with a grain of salt when memories come with agendas. Still, I was never bored, although I wish there was more on George V, who for all his faults looks like Zeus compared to his children and grandchildren. Much of the book is focused on the current Queen and her brethren. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my.

The book talks about an affair that Prince Philip allegedly had, then in the next paragraph denies it — why include this, then? It also says that Princess Diana had a miscarriage. I’d never heard that, and looking a bit online, can’t find anything confirming it either. So, more speculation I suppose. As long as they produce children and keep the bloodline going...that's all that's required. Whether the bridegroom is homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual doesn't matter, as long as the marriage looks good on the outside and is kept up for public appearances. It's worse for gay men in the aristocracy because it's the duty of the oldest make to produce an heir to pass on the family name, the property, and the title. So they've got to get married, no matter what their sexual orientation is, which accounts for the long established tradition in Britain of homosexual men marrying women simply to breed. Makes no difference what they do later on the side as long as they do it discreetly. That's the hypocrisy of it all. " The first commoner to marry into the family was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon to King George VI, funny enough she showed the country how royalty should behave. She integrated herself as Duchess of York. She also earned mass adoration from her English subjects when she refused to leave during the bombing of World War II. She refused to seek safety for herself of her children. She became such a morale booster that Adolf Hitler called her the most dangerous woman in Europe.

Did we miss something on diversity?

When Sarah “Fergie” was in the midst of a mess with her marriage to Prince Andrew, the book quotes Prince Philip as saying to her, “Look, you may like to know that there but for the grace of God go I.” I found myself wondering how the author had heard this exact quote (she even claims it was said “softly”). My secret double-life was finally catching up with me. Sorcha wanted a divorce. I was facing jail time for taking my orse out in a pub in Cork. And there was a very good chance that my sister-in-law's surrogate baby was actually mine?