A Royal Affair - Hardcover

Tillyard, Stella

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701173068 ISBN 13: 9780701173067

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2006

Synopsis

The young George III was a poignant figure, humdrum on the surface, yet turbulent beneath: hiding his own passions, he tried hard to be a father to his siblings and his nation. This intimate, fast-moving book tells the intertwined stories. His sisters were doomed to marry foreign princes and leave home forever; his brothers had no role and too much time on their hands - a recipe for disaster. At the heart of Tillyard's story is Caroline Mathilde, who married the mad Christian of Denmark in her teens, but fell in love with the royal doctor Struensee: a terrible fate awaited them, despite George's agonized negotiations. Around this tragedy, Stella Tillyard weaves the dramas of the rakish Duke of York; the Duke of Cumberland, caught up in a notorious divorce; the Duke of Gloucester, secretly married, to the fury of the King. Desperate for control, George constructed the Royal Marriage Act, which still bedevils the royal family today. At the same time, he faced his tumultuous American colonies. And at every step, a feverish press pounced on the gossip, fostering a new national passion - a heated mix of celebrity and sex. Tillyard conjures up a Georgian world of war and peace, the choppy seas and backwaters of international diplomacy in a changing world of ancient regimes and radical ideas - the history of private passions and public disgrace, rebellion and exile, in a curtain raiser to the revolutions, which convulsed two continents.

About this title

Review:

"The story is brilliantly told" -- TLS, John Mullan

From the Publisher:

The acclaimed, bestselling author of ARISTOCRATS returns with a stunning, major new book about a scandal-ridden family trapped between duty, desire and the protocols of royalty - the dramatic story of a king trying to hold family and state together, as both his siblings and his American colonies rebel... A sweeping picture of 18th-century royalty, politics and family affairs, impeccably researched, with glamorous settings, driving narrative, dazzling characters and provocative ideas.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0701173068
• ISBN 13: 9780701173067
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400