Mrs Margaret Townsend as wasn't: my royal contribution to this week's LRB...
Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled by Tim Heald · Weidenfeld, 346 pp, £20.00
And now for the other princess: the one who failed to stop all the clocks in Kensington Palace and Mustique, and grew old. In doing so she became sick, fat, grumpy, drunk and unloved. This, you might think, is the fate of many people who leave dying to their later years. But in a princess these flaws, if not the necessary concomitants of age then surely an entitlement of age, are particularly disappointing. We like our princesses young and adorable, and if possible witty and talented, though we’ve had to settle for the former. While she was young, Margaret Rose was the apple of her father’s eye, enchanting to all who met her, talented, witty, artistic, they said – and then one day she was middle-aged, frumpy, snobbish, self-centred, a raddled old gin tippler and a bore. So much apparent promise, so little follow through.
The rest of it at the LRB Online. Subscribers only again, but you know you should...
Another wonderful review. I can only hope the LRB keep giving you dreadful books to read - because your reviews of them are so superb. This week's and last week's were great. Just great. Slightly too adoringly, I've also blogged you. Forgive the sycophant in me. It will pass.
Posted by: Lara | Friday, 10 August 2007 at 11:32 AM