No comments about The Ruler Portraits of Anglo-Saxon England (Anglo-Saxon Studies).

No comments about Diana: The Life of a Troubled Princess.

2 comments about Margaret: The Last Real Princess.

1. Not great, but not bad. A nice easy read, this is unfortunately a one-sided portrait of an otherwise complex interesting character, focusing mostly on her romantic controversies. I would have liked to know a bit more about all of her, her hobbies, daily routines, relationship with other Royals. I was also disappointed at the photographs, whole pages of her lovers! I would have liked to see her homes, her clothes, and her beautiful wedding. Not a disappointment by any means but this could have been a richer read than as it stands.



2. I hesitated in deciding to review this book. Is it worth drawing the public's attention to a book that is, at best, descriptive journalism which promises more than it delivers? Only after reading the book did I acquaint myself with the author's journalistic reputation which helped explain some of my original disappointment with the book. As an academic, I cannot recommend this book to any serious reader interested in matters concerning the Windsor family. The book lacks proper endnotes and citations. Botham rarely identifies his sources but chooses convincing descriptive labels that suggest authoritative individuals with first hand knowledge. I am disappointed in Botham's "soap opera" treatment of a topic that is of genuine interest to many in the British Commonwealth. In short, save your money!

3 comments about Royal Service: My Twelve Years As Valet to Prince Charles.

1. I recently found this book - in hardback - as I was going through some boxes of royal junk and miscellany. Upon re-reading it I had not realised how inconsequential it was - but I suppose Mr. Barry had to cash in on his job experiences in order to maintain the lifestyle to which he was not born and in which he got very comfortable, indeed.

   He needed a really good editor and/or proofreader because there are some real howlers in his text: "Duke of Argyle" for "Duke of Argyll", "Castle of May" for "Castle of Mey" (the late Queen Mother's northern Scottish residence), "the Earl of Spencer" for "the Earl Spencer", "Lord and Lady Spencer" for "the Earl and Countess of Spencer", "Lord Snowden" for "Lord Snowdon", and he keeps referring to some entity called the "Gold Coast" - I believe he means the "Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) in Africa. This is not the complete list of his inadequacies as a royal diarist and passable writer.

   That being said, there is one telling photograph that is unattributed showing The Queen and her family on the Royal Yacht Britannia. In it, Her Majesty is wearing SLACKS! There was a recent controversy that when The Queen exited the hospital after surgery on her leg that said that this was only the second time she had been photographed in such garb. Apparently, all the pompous pundits forgot about THIS photograph. It made for good cocktail chatter for about two weeks and friends were amazed that I could dredge up proof of the factual errors of ALL of the newspapers and scandal rags.

   I feel the reviews by the two other readers were gushing and over-the-top - the book is only a tarted-up diary with some very occasional and all too infrequent insights. But the photos are interesting and of some archival use. Mr. Barry later succumbed to AIDS.

   Timothy Wingate, Canada




2. There is an old saying that goes 'No man is a hero to his valet'. That may
   or may not be the case, however Stephen Barry's innocuous memoir was written
   to reveal as little of the un-heroic side of the Prince of Wales as possible.
   The book suffers for the discretion of the author and In light of the
   revelations to come after this book was written, it does so needlessly.

   Serving Charles as his valet from 1970 to 1982, Barry was in a unique
   position to observe Royalty close-up. He makes the most of the opportunity
   and is willing to let a few (and only a few) tid-bits out of the bag. Did
   you know that the Prince is obsessed with making sure that his favorite brand
   of honey accompanies him wherever he travels? Or that the Prince prefers a
   sweater to central heating (A trait he shares with Queen Victoria)? These
   and many other startling revelations await the reader of "Royal Service: My
   Twelve Years as Valet to Prince Charles" Not surprisingly, one topic that

   permeates the book is Charles' desire for privacy. This was a desire that was
   often unheeded by the many people around him. Knowing this, one wonders why
   the book was written at all.

   Both the author and the Prince were born in 1948, thus after a few years
   training, as a footman Barry is the right man of the right age in the right
   place to become the valet to Charles. This relationship persists until
   shortly after his wedding to Diana. That proved to be a period during which
   many of the long-term servants of the household go on to new duties.
   Strongly and repeatedly denying any sort of a fight between himself and the
   Princess, Barry writes "Understandably she would not wish to have around
   herself and her husband those who had known him at earlier times when there
   were other girl friends".

   Primarily, the book is organized along topical lines. Travel with the
   Prince, Holidays with the Prince, the Prince and the other members of the
   family, The many girl friends of the Prince, and so on. There is also some
   material organized in a chronological fashion about the duties that Barry
   held in the palace prior to his work for Charles.

   Barry is the first to point out the dichotomy of the situation that he was
   in. He often saw more of his royal master that Charles' family or friends.
   And yet it was always from the perspective of the master/servant
   relationship. After all, "However kind and friendly they are, in the end
   they are Royal".

   Barry is quick to play up this relationship (going so far to point out that
   at least one portrait of the Prince is Charles' head and Barry's body wearing
   garter robes). However he often gives short shrift to the many other members
   of the team who worked with the Prince. While the Policemen who serve
   Charles often are mentioned in anecdotes it is only on occasion that we hear
   about the junior valet who also works with Barry to tend to the Prince. In
   fact the assistant is never mentioned by name!

   While the book hints at many things in the intimate female relationships the
   Prince has had Barry is quick to mention that Charles always handled his love
   interests with such discretion that Barry never found the Prince in bed with
   anyone! This comes after he repeatedly states how it was his duty to awaken
   Charles each morning at 7:50. This may or may not be so but in any event it
   belies the closeness that Barry seems to have felt.

   Time has not been good to this book. It abounds with many unintended
   ironies. Barry himself did not live to see all of them come to public light
   but here is a sample of some from the book:
   "People always seemed to die when we were at Balmoral. This complicated
   things for me, getting the Prince's wardrobe together"
   On Camilla --
   "For many years before he married, the gossip was that the Prince of Wales
   was strongly influenced in his choice of girl friends by two married women -
   Lady Tryon .... And Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowels, the wife of a cavalry officer.
   ....
   The Prince is simply not the type of man to dally with married women."
   "Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles, is a hunting friend....and the friendship ... seems
   to have survived the marriage"
   On Diana -
   "she was a friendly and open young woman. The crew of the Britannia fell in
   love with her to a man"
   "She liked giggling and she loved eating sweets. She always got into the car
   with her Yorkie bars or bags of toffees. 'Have one Stephen,' she'd say. 'Go
   on.'
   'You'll get fat,' I used to warn her. But she undoubtedly burned up all those
   calories contending wit the pressures that were building up. "
   "The camera flashing in her face, the constant pestering finally got through.
   She burst into tears. ......
   The prince came back as soon as he could and comforted her, but it was easy
   to see that he was worried. Was she going to fail to cope with all that being
   Royal demands, right at the last minute, five days before the wedding? ... But
   the young lady is very resilient and she soon perked up again"




3. . . .by the former valet of the Prince of Wales. This is not a tattle-tale tell-all -- instead it is, especially for Americans, an intimate and heartwarming look into the mystique of the British Royal Family. Barry is discreet and complimentary throughout, while relating amusing anecdotes about the Royals as he moves through their lives as one of the principal servants to Prince Charles.

   An enjoyable read.

2 comments about Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses Ii, King of Egypt (Egyptology) (Egyptology).

1. Dr. Kitchen's monumental work is the standard book on Ramesses the Great, one of Egypt's Greatest Pharaohs. The author meticulously examines Egypt's history prior to Ramesses' reign and Ramesses II's motivations as king. Kitchen explains Ramesses II's need to enhance his family line's legitimacy to the throne since his grandfather, Ramesses I, only acquired the throne by being appointed as heir apparent to Pharaoh Horemheb. In addition, his family were commoners with no previous blood ties to the royal family. This helps explains Ramesses II's need to create massive statues, rock cut temples at Abu Simbel, the great Ramesseum at Karnak, his initiation of almost yearly military campaigns against the Libyans, the Barbary Sea Pirates, and most famously, the Hittites, among his many numerous deeds in order to prove the legitimacy of his kingship.
   
   Ramesses ended up becoming one of Egypt's most famous and dynamic kings and was probably the Pharaoh of the Bible who faced Moses since the prominent city of 'Raamses' is explicitly mentioned in the Biblical account in Exodus as being one of the Egyptian cities in the fertile Delta that the Ancient Israelites left. This is probably the new city of Pi-Ramesse Aa-nakhtu or the "House of Ramesses-Great-of-Victories" which Ramses II built in his reign. His extremely long reign--at 66 Years--allowed him to virtually stamp his authority and memory into posterity. All in all, Kitchen gives an insightful study of Ramesses II: the model pharaoh in war, international diplomacy and monument building. Hence, Kitchen's astute book title: Pharaoh Triumphant indeed.



2. This book gives the reader a massive insight into the land of Egypt under the fist of pharaoh Ramesses II. The book paints a clear picture into the truth behind this greatest of kings, it explains his family, the history preceeding his reign and the various campaigns during his time on the throne. This is truly a book for the experienced Egyptologist as you have to have a lot of back ground knowledge on the 19th Dynasty. This book makes the great hero out of Ramesses as he no doubt truly was, he truly was "PHARAOH TRIUMPHANT".

4 comments about King Zog of Albania: Europe's Self-Made Muslim Monarch.

1. Ahmet Zogolli (Zogu, King Zog) is one of the great 'characters' of the early twentieth century. Born into a powerful clan in Northern Albania, he was destined to be a leader of men from birth. But Zog wanted to be more than just another petty warlord, he wanted to be a King. Jason Tomes has done a yeomanlike job of turning this 'myth' into a real person, he has shown him (as much as possible) with all his faults and gifts; trying his best to see through the smoke screen that swirls around him.
   
   The man who at 22 was a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army, Minister of the Interior at 24, President at 29, King at 34 and ex-King at 45, is not an easy one to pin down. Like Albania during the second half of the twentieth century, little was published or known of the goings on during the early days of the Republic/Kingdom. Even today, few people could tell you much about Albania, much less find it on a map. It was the only country carved out of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WW1 that did not have a nationalist movement. The country was created more to keep it out of the hands of Greece and Yugoslavia than anything else.
   
   Under the Ottomans, the valleys were divided up into separate administ- rative area that were each ruled by a Bey who then reported to a Pasha who had power over a larger district. Albania was made up of more than six districts one of which was Kosovo. When the Balkans were divvied up at Versailles, Albania ended up over 90% Albanian, but, leaving more Albanians living outside of the country than in. The Greeks wanted the South which was Greek Orthodox, and the Yugoslavs wanted the north which was Roman Catholic (as part of Croatia).
   
   Zog managed to set-up a government in Tirana (which was the middle of nowhere) and stage manage a government by playing off the different Beys against each other. He relied heavily on a gendarmarie that was primarily made up of his historical supporter (from the Mati Valley). While holding off both the Greeks and Serbs (Yugoslavs) he became more and more indebted to the Italians and finally lost his Kingdom to Mussolini in 1939.
   
   As an ex-King he only was acknowledged by Turkey and Egypt, and during his time in England during WW2 he was never given any recognition or money for guerilla warfare from the Allies. The country was handed to the communist insurgents under Enver Hoxha (with a lot of help from Stalin and Tito) at the end of the War. He finally died a recluse in the south of France.
   
   Tomes shows the tragedy of how Albania never was important enough to anyone but the Italians (and then as a colony) for Zog to be able to create a viable government. He talked as if he wanted to create a constitutional monarchy, but first he had to create a country and an educated middle class. He was not altogether altruistic, since he probably stole half the money that came into the country as aid from the Italians, but then he strikes one as a realist and put himself in the forefront whenever he could.



2. Noel Malcolm calls it fantastic - this should be enough of a reason for anyone who has interest in Balkan history and politics to read this book. Well researched, balanced but witty and with a tat of the usual Western cynical eye describing Balkan events, people or politics. I doubt there is a more well researched book ever written, in any language, on King Zog and the period of the Albanian Monarchy.



3. In hindsight, it was probably inevitable that King Zog of Albania would be driven from his throne in 1939. A British diplomat who worked with Zog found him amusing, but believed the King would probably end up assassinated. The conditions in Albania made that a very likely fate. It is a time and place well described in this groundbreaking biography of King Zog written by Jason Tomes.
   
   When Albania broke from the Ottoman Empire in 1913, it was a poor and rural country. The Ottomans had forbidden the teaching of the Albanian language in the schools and many of the people were illiterate. There had been very little done in recent years to develop the country and it was isolated from neighboring Europe by its mountainous terrain and perhaps because it was largely a Muslim country.
   
   The Ottoman system of benign neglect did nothing to discourage the clannishness of the Albanians. Europeans were skeptical that there could even be an independent Albania. Zog saw that it was necessary to make Albanians into citizens, instead of clansmen. This would not be an easy task. The "average Albanian knows nothing about nationality," Zog said. "He has always looked up to the head of his tribe, or his Bey, as the supreme authority."
   
   Ahmet Zog was born in 1895 in Mati environs. He spent some of his adolescence in Istanbul, soaking up the political atmosphere of the Young Turks. He returned when Albania was liberated and later fought alongside the Austrians against the Italians who were occupying part of Albania. The Austrians, who had designs on Albania, considered the young chieftain useful enough to keep in Vienna in case they would need him after the First World War. Later, Zog staged a coup d'état with the help of Yugoslavia and, during his reign, he made Albania into an Italian satellite state.
   
   Zog picked up foreign languages and some sophistication that many of countrymen didn't have, but he also needed to maintain his Albanian roots. Zog was born the son of a Mati Chieftain and his clansmen were his power base. As described in Edith Durham's "High Albania," northern Albania was the land of the blood feud, a place reminiscent of the West Virginia of the Hatfields and the McCoys, where people asked not what their neighbor died of, but who had killed him. His clansmen were both credits and debits to him. It was with their help (and well distributed gold) that Zog was able to overthrow the republican government of Fan Noli. Yet, even when he was trying to introduce laws outlawing blood feuds, he was obligated to participate in them to keep face with his clansmen.
   
   The story of Zog's reign is mostly one of manipulation by the Italians. The Greeks and Serbs were both interested in carving up Albania, but the Italians were the neighbors with the most money. The Italians built roads and sold the Albanians weapons (often hopelessly obsolete) and made Zogist Albania into a puppet state. For his part, Zog got a good deal of loot, including funds for "a white silk tunic with gold frogging, epaulettes...a white fur hat with plume, a black cloak, and white patent leather boots with gold spurs." Besides looking the part of a king, he became rich as one by often getting the better part of a deal, as when he pocketed 300,000 lira selling the Italians inaccessible forestlands in Mati. He always regarded refusing a bribe as looking a gift horse in the mouth, Tomes writes. After Zog was exiled from Albania, he moved from country to country burdened with the many cases of gold that he had acquired during his regime.
   
   Besides being a biography of a scoundrel dominated by an even bigger scoundrel (Mussolini), Tomes gives some interesting descriptions of Albania in the 1920s and 1930s. He describes the capital of Tirana as city that smelt of mutton and coffee grounds, which was covered in a cloud of dust in the summer and slimy mud in the winter, and where school children were required to recite a catechism that included the lines "where does the mud seem sweeter than honey? In Albania." Many Albanians were more Turkish in manner than the Turks in Atatürk's new republic, yet they were still drawn to European and American culture. Tomes writes about moviegoers who boggled at the fancy-dress films of Greta Garbo while scoffing at westerns and war movies as being hopelessly unrealistic.
   
   Zog was a hard-working ruler and physically brave, but when the Italians overthrew him, the people hardly noticed. Tomes even writes that the invading Italians made the country more prosperous. When Zog (or "bird" in Albanian) became king and rather hopefully named himself King Zog the first, he was mocked abroad as King Bird I. Yet he couldn't name himself "King Ahmet" because he didn't want to be seen as a Muslim ruler and yet he couldn't disavow Islam. Looking at Zog's reign, it is easier to understand how later Albanian rulers became suspicious of foreign powers and organized religion.
   
   After Zog and the Second World War, the communists came to power under the Stalinist Enver Hoxha. His regime was so repressive that many Albanians today hold King Zog in some esteem. Tomes calls this a sobering thought.



4. Obscure subject, but a wonderful book -- thorough, well-researched, and well-written. If you're a history buff, this is a must-read.

No comments about Diana in Search of Herself.

2 comments about Monarchy and Matrimony: The Courtships of Elizabeth I.

1. When Sue Doran writes about something you ,the reader, can be assured the result will be an indepth study of her subject matter...no just brush the surface with this writer...Here you will read about the political and social intrigue surrounding Elizabeth I and her courtships.The author focuses on a different approach to the Virgin Queen's trials in trying to govern England and handle the many "would be"and serious suitors.A most interesting and informative book for those interested in history.



2. This is a unique study which is of equal value to the academic or the interested amateur. For too long Christopher Haig's dated and simplified account of the Virgin Queen's persistent virginity has been allowed to dominate Elizabethan history. Susan Doran takes each of Elizabeth's courtships seriously instead of blindly assuming a grand narrative. Although female historians are relatively new to the public arena, Susan Doran has "the heart and stomach of a man".

No comments about Henry VIII - Vol. I.

No comments about The Royal Family.