ROYAL FAMILY

Here is a royal book with a difference. It is a family saga showing the monarchy from the death of Queen Victoria to the present day. But rather than just an account of the reign of the five 20th-century monarchs, this is a study of their dynasty, of both its major and minor members. The entire royal family is vividly portrayed - with its triumphs and its heartbreaks, its brilliance and its mediocrity, its strengths and its vulnerabilities. The main theme explores the way in which, in over eighty years, the royal family has adapted to changing times in order not only to survive but to enhance its position in national and international life. It is an account of a royal house in the state of continuous transition, of a family deeply concerned with making itself relevant to contemporary life while retaining its essential element of mystique. Many other interesting themes also emerge