I picked up 3 søstre by Jon Bloch Skipper at the bookstore at Magasin on my way home from work.
It is basically a conversation book, in which the author interviews Queen Margrethe, Princess Benedikte and Queen Anne-Marie. He has them discussing their childhood based on the pictures he has retrieved from the royal collections. The interviews, 3 total, take place at Gråsten and at Fredensborg.
The conversation between the sisters move quickly, and as he also points out, you clearly get the feeling that the sisters each have a role in the family. Margrethe is definitely the most talkative one, and Benedikte seems quite content a lot of the time to be the middle child and let her sisters talk.
It felt a bit superfluous to me, the constant pointing out they did with the age difference between them, but I think that’s probably something that is different in live conversation than it comes out on page.
The pictures, and the histories, are things that make this book well worth a peek. A young Queen Margrethe dressed up as Queen Juliane in a costume drama, a young Princess Benedikte dressed up in the Ruby parure that Mary now wears, as Queen Désirée of Sweden, and the youngest, Anne-Marie left with the part of playing Désirée’s son, Oscar.
It is also very interesting when the sister begin to point out that even if they may have had an extraordinary childhood (as evidenced by Anne-Marie asking for lobster and having a 3 course meal for her 6th birthday), it was quite normal for them. And there is also a lot of normal childhood elements tossed in there, the sharing of clothes, the dance school, and having to take turns at doing things so it would be fair… 😉
They also pose an interesting theory; that they have had an easier childhood than their children, or grandchildren will have, because of the relatively mildness of the Danish press when they were growing up.
All in all, I do think it could have been edited more, and for some it may not be asking critical enough questions (or receiving answers to the ones that are asked, such as if there has been trouble in the marriages…) But it was a fun read, and so much better getting the tales from the 1st hand source, so to speak.
I’m very glad I picked it up.
