Norwegianne.net

Category: Reviews

Reviews of various books, movies, tv-shows, etc.

  • Review: The Royal We

    The Royal We
    The Royal We

    This was quite possibly the most unexpected, and entertaining read I have had in a very long time. I picked it up on a sale – and had very low expectations, despite all the good reviews. As a royal watcher, I don’t know anything I dislike more than when people write royal fiction a) get things wrong and/or b) set it in an existing country. In short, I was super skeptical.

    This is the story that went beyond that for me. It is built on the story of Will and Kate, but with a whole different origin premise in who inherited the throne after Victoria I – and it keeps wobbling back and forth on the backstory of the royal line. What if the heir to the throne falls in love and marries an American?

    I laughed, and I cried (several times) during the reading of this. It is so well-written that the pages just fly by, and even though I had planned on going to bed early, I just had to finish it.

    In several ways the story was as implausible, but it was sweet and interesting. The book worked for me in a major way, and I can’t wait to reread it.

  • Review: Kongens hus : Alle kongeparets hjem

    Kongens hus : Alle kongeparets hjem by Queen Sonja

    I picked this up at the library, after I saw it exhibited at the Open Palace tour in Oslo. It is a beautiful book filled with photographs and interesting text about all the residences that the King and Queen inhabit.

    The book is worth looking through for the photographs alone. How the interior is decorated, and not just the public rooms. The pictures of the private apartments are filled with the Queen’s art and the King’s sailing trophies. The pictures of Queen Sonja’s art on the walls remind me of the pictures of the art in the renovated palace in Copenhagen.

    Also, pictures of the holiday residences are shared. Some of the places are rarely seen inside by the public.

    In addition, if you read Norwegian – the snippets the Queen shares for each residence makes the book worth reading. There is not much new information, but it is well written and makes the book.

    Her perfectionism is shown through the story of her sleeping in every bedroom in the palace prior to the renovation so she would know exactly what needed to be done. The only negative is the lack of comments on the uproar on the cost of the renovation.

    Her stories are supplemented by facts from the architect Thomas Thiis-Evensen and art historian Ole Rikard Høisæther.

    Well worth the read.

     

  • Haakon & Maud

    Grrr… Just finished reading this Norwegian series of books – allegedly about King Haakon and Queen Maud. It was meant to be a two volume series.

    In reality, the author was given (almost) free access to a whole lot of royal archives of letters, diaries and other documents (in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Russia and the UK – among others), and went a bit nuts.

    In reality, it is now six volumes – and the majority of volume six deals with how the Norwegian government in Norway during WWII. Wait… No… that’s inaccurate. It goes from May to September 1940.

    He is writing another volume (at least) for the rest of the war and the post-war years.

    In general, the writing is good, and the royal letters and thoughts are interesting. But there is just too much information that maybe could have been cut, because it is generally known, redundant or not relevant for the biography on Haakon and Maud.

    For example the half-page biography on Hitler.

    Or the extreme repetition of the telling of the murders of the tsar and his family, in all their blood and gore. Which, in itself, is relevant to the story, but not in the extreme overload that is shared.

    And the same goes for the volume detailing about half of 1940.

    Also, the theory that Olav was not the son of Haakon – but the son of the royal doctor is in, but the theory that the sister of Carl/Haakon/Charles had a child out of wedlock is dismissed.

    The six books that have been published so far could very well have been edited down to four. Maybe five with a generous editor. But as it is, it has transcended from being a biography about Haakon and Maud into a never-ending story about everything and the kitchen sink (almost.)

    If you do read Norwegian, I recommend it – it is by Tor Bomann-Larsen, (who also wrote the cutest children’s book about when the royal family learnt to ski.) and it has won a lot of awards. It is well written. It just, in my opinion, should have been edited down a bit.

  • Review: Madeleine : Prinsessan privat

    Madeleine : Prinsessan privat by Johan T Lindwall
    I’m not sure I will ever get used to the Swedish royal reporters’ way of writing biographies. First of all – there is too much inference of what the persons in this book were thinking about specific events. Another reviewer said that a problem with it is that with Johan T. Lindwall you never quite know what are the facts, what are the rumours and what is pure speculation, and I thought *that’s it*: that is my basic problem with the book. There are no citations or footnotes at the end, so you can tell when he is working from the facts from interviews, or other books. Obviously, he also has to protect his sources, and when the sources are the main persons themselves, he is diligent about reporting who said what.  It does however, resort in a slight muddle when you hear about “Queen Silvia thought…” and the people in the room with Queen Silvia at the time were just family… and none of whom are being quoted as the person talking to Lindwall.
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  • Book review Mary and Frederik 10 years

    ItemImage.aspxI picked this up in October when I was in Denmark.

    It’s a nice book filled with lots of nice pictures.

    It details how they met, their wedding, the children, and their work over the past ten years.

    If you have followed them for the past ten years, there is next to little new.

    If you haven’t, or am new to royal watching, the book gives a nice overview.

    Another review comments on how the book tries to show their everyday life. The down-to-earth of making breakfast for the children, and picking them up at daycare, but gloss over the details that doesn’t necessarily show the family off as the down-to-earth Danes that just happen to live in multiple palaces – such as the nannies.

    Overall, the writing gets a bit sugar-sweet, but as an overview it is a decent enough book.

     

  • Review: Royale Rejser: Bag kulisserne med de kongelige

    The book Royale Rejser: Bag kulisserne med de kongelige by John Lindskog depicts the story in 15 chapters of various photographers who have been following the Danish royal family through the years.

    It tells the story of King Frederik who did not much care for the photographers, but had one he tolerated. Prince Henrik who was taught how to sail by a photographer. The photographer who got the scoop of Mary and Frederik together on holiday in Australia, based on something Mary had said in an interview a lot earlier. It also tells of how they might not publish something because the royal family asked them not to.

    Of course, the stories in the book are subjective – as the last chapter’s interpretation that Queen Margarethe will abdicate any day now. (The book was written in 2009.)

    The photographers share the stories of how it is to travel with the royal family. How they can joke with them one minute, and be very formal the next.

    And the story of how one of them – Martin Jørgensen married into the family, sort of.

    As more and more newspapers and magazines are starting to rely on pool photography and buy from a limited number of photographers, it seems like the type of photographers in this book, who photograph the royal family for so long that they get a relationship with them, may be a dying race.

    I found the book fascinating, and if you read Danish, it is definitely worth a read.

  • Review: On Duty with the Queen: My Time as a Buckingham Palace Press Officer

    On Duty with the Queen: My Time as a Buckingham Palace Press Officer
    On Duty with the Queen: My Time as a Buckingham Palace Press Officer by Dickie Arbiter

    The book details the time of Dickie Arbiter’s work in the press office at Buckingham Palace. First working for the Prince and Princess of Wales, then later for the royal collections (and also seemingly chipping in whenever needed, as with the funeral of the Princess of Wales).

    He also interjects his personal history into the book, and at times that felt more interesting than the royal “scandal” of the week that he had to defuse.

    There are personal observations about the royals in the book. However, he is also very careful about not saying much that would (probably) violate a non-disclosure contract. It can therefore get a bit bland at times.

    I found the chapter on the planning and arranging of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales fascinating. Especially the bit about extending the route of the funeral cortege to spread the crowds out.

    All in all, a decent read.

     

  • Amalienborg – a book review

    IMG_2242.JPG
    Amalienborg by Jørgen Larsen, Thomas Larsen, and Bjarke Ørsted

    The book is heavy, and filled with pictures and history. There are interviews with Queen Margrethe, Prince Henrik and Crown Prince Frederik and on their relationship with the palace.

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  • Review: Still Reigning: Thoughts of a Queen

    Still Reigning: Thoughts of a Queen
    Still Reigning: Thoughts of a Queen by The Queen [of Twitter]

    I loved and chuckled often at The Queen_UK on Twitter in the beginning. I have the first book, and laughed several times while reading it. In most of her tweets and analysis, I thought she was spot on. Witty.

    However, with this one… I don’t find it nearly as funny. Maybe because there is so much repetition between each chapter, and sometimes “she” contradicts herself from chapter to chapter.

    Plus, I get that it is a gimmick, but after hearing in chapter after chapter (not to mention in several tweets over the past couple of years) how much the Queen of Spain loves Phillip Schofield, I got a bit tired of the whole concept. There is a decided lack of imagination, beyond some jokes that gets repeated ad nauseam.

    It is a fun idea when you evolve as you go along, but to me the fun of it has outlived itself.

    If you haven’t read the first book, or followed the persona on Twitter, then it is worth the read. If you have… probably not. (And I feel supremely grumpy for saying that, because I really wanted to be entertained.)