The book’s prologue is the story of the death of the Duke’s sister, Cecile, in 1937. From there, Eade goes back to the origin of the Greek monarchy, to give a bit of background, and to bring it out from obscurity, or so he says. He continues onto the house of Battenberg, and takes that to the point of Prince Philip’s birth.
From there, the story goes on chronologically, dealing with the issues of Philip’s parents – the family’s exile from Greece after Prince Andrea’s trial, Princess Alice’s entry into the mental facility – his sisters and their marriages into German families, and Philip’s education and the Mountbatten families.
It covers the courting process with Princess Elizabeth, going to the wedding, touching very briefly on the birth of Prince Charles (and almost completely ignoring Princess Anne), and ending with the coronation of the Queen.
It is an interesting read, but there is a lot of overlap here between former books about both Philip, Elizabeth and his mother and this one. This leads to the feeling that there is very few new things that are revealed, if one has read a couple of the other books. It is quite nice in attributing the sources, so it reads as though it has been fairly well researched. Or as well researched as it can be without interviewing the Duke or the Queen.
The author goes into so much depth at the beginning, that the last chapters from the wedding and to the coronation, feels rather rushed.
If you haven’t got either of the other books, and are interested in the topic – I would read this. It has a nice chronological telling of it all. If you have read a lot of books on the British/Greek royals… it might be too much information here that has been reused from elsewhere.
It is not the kind of book you get for the pictures.
