I've been meaning to read this book since the Queen's death in 2022. I have also recently finished On the Ground: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent, a memoir of Canadian news correspondent Brian Stewart. It was fascinating to see many of the same historical events through two so very different lenses. The Falkland War is a case in point. The contrast between Stewart's account (an entire chapter with political and military analysis) and the Morton version (a few paragraphs focused on Andrew's role in the conflict). Each book covers it's subject appropriately, but the contrast amused me.
I gained a new view of Queen Elizabeth II, something I would never actually have guessed, although hindsight makes it look obvious. Her Majesty had a very difficult time facing sticky, emotional family questions. She procrastinated on making decisions on them and, as Morton puts it, was reluctant to “grasp the nettle.” This had a tendency to prolong everyone's misery and make bad situations worse. It began with her sister's romance with a divorced man, Peter Townsend. The Queen was right in thinking that allowing the match would be hypocritical after her uncle's forced abdication over Wallis Simpson, but she avoided doing the difficult thing. It would have been kinder to just say no and instruct the pair to get on with their separate lives. This pattern was repeated over and over, culminating in the War of the Waleses, as Prince Charles and Diana duked it out in the popular press as their marriage ended. A decisive Queen could have headed that calamity off at the pass.
This book was published before the sovereigns death in 2022. Events have moved along, seeing King Charles crowned and his brother Andrew stripped of all his royal titles (and rightly so, for being arrogant, selfish, and insufferably stupid). If Elizabeth II was still alive, would it have been possible to deal with her second son this way? He was reputedly her favourite child, but is certainly not beloved by Prince William. It is probably for the best that she not have to feel paralyzed by this situation.
With her death, we have reached the end of an era. Despite the turmoil caused by her family, she will undoubtedly be remembered fondly by many of her subjects, myself included.
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