**SPECTATOR BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020**
**TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020**
**SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020**

‘A must if you love The Crown’ Good Housekeeping

‘For a glimpse into the lives of the young princesses these diaries are riveting’ Daily Mail, Christmas Books 2020

‘A wonderful book’ A. N. Wilson, Spectator, Books of the Year 2020

‘A new perspective on “Lilibet” as she fell for her future husband’ Sunday Express, Books of the Year 2020

‘Funny, astute, poignant and historically fascinating’ The Times

‘A compelling and revealing insight into the teenage life of the then Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret’ Richard Kay, Daily Mail

‘I loved reading this, so reminiscent of my own childhood’ Anne Glenconner, author of Lady in Waiting

‘Alathea found herself living in Windsor with the Princesses throughout the Second World War. She captures that tiny, peaceful island in a world on fire’ Charles Moore, Spectator

‘This is an enthralling book . . . often funny and sometimes truly moving’ The Oldie

‘Fascinating insight into Elizabeth as a teenager’ OK! Magazine

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The Windsor Diaries are the never-before-seen diaries of Alathea Fitzalan Howard, who lived alongside the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at Windsor Castle during the Second World War.

Alathea’s home life was an unhappy one. Her parents had separated and so during the war she was sent to live with her grandfather, Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent, at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park. There Alathea found the affection and harmony she craved as she became a close friend of the two princesses, visiting them often at Windsor Castle, enjoying parties, balls, cinema evenings, picnics and celebrations with the Royal Family and other members of the Court.

Alathea’s diary became her constant companion during these years as day by day she recorded every intimate detail of life with the young Princesses, often with their governess Crawfie, or with the King and Queen.

Written from the ages of sixteen to twenty-two, she captures the tight-knit, happy bonds between the Royal Family, as well as the aspirations and anxieties, sometimes extreme, of her own teenage mind.

These unique diaries give us a bird’s eye view of Royal wartime life with all of Alathea’s honest, yet affectionate judgments and observations – as well as a candid and vivid portrait of the young Princess Elizabeth, known to Alathea as ‘Lilibet’, a warm, self-contained girl, already falling for her handsome prince Philip, and facing her ultimate destiny: the Crown.

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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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