Like millions of other people around the world, I was
stunned when it became known that Prince Charles had chosen
another woman over the universally adored beautiful,
glamorous Lady Di, "The People's Princess." How dare he!
Camilla Parker Bowles had been the other woman in Charles'
life for many years, in various capacities. Mrs. Parker
Bowles at once became the most hated woman in Britain, if
not the world. As the years passed, and more information
emerged, many of us wondered if we had been unjust towards
Camilla. Who is this woman who involuntarily almost brought
the British Monarchy to its knees? That is what Penny Junor
has endeavored to do to astounding results.
Ms. Junor has covered the Royals for nearly thirty years,
either knows personally or professionally several of the key
players, and appears to be quite a reliable source. Although
THE DUCHESS is an unauthorized biography, given the
author's credentials, it's almost a technicality. THE
DUCHESS is fully researched and well documented, but what
convinced me to really give this book my full attention was
something that made me doubtful at the very beginning. It is
obvious that Ms. Junor is extremely fond of Camilla -- for
the sake of brevity and not out of disrespect, I will
abstain from using the formal titles -- and I wondered if
THE DUCHESS was merely the product of a long- time fan to
rehabilitate her idol, but soon Ms. Junor made it quite
clear that she could remain coolly objective, and from then
on, I was all ears (or should I say all eyes).
I must say that THE DUCHESS was quite an eye-opener: never
had I imagined how complicated, taxing, and demanding being
a royal really was. Ms. Junor documents the daily life of
the royals extensively, being an avid historical romance
reader I had some minute inklings as to how it seemed, I was
flabbergasted! Although I think that, at times, some details
concerning minor players were overabundant, the whole thing
was riveting, and it shed some light on the sometimes
unbearable challenges the Royal Family faces. In THE
DUCHESS, we get to know intimately Camilla, her family
having been part of the royal circles even before she became
involved with Charles. We also get to know a lot about
Charles and Diana, Charles' relationship with his parents,
and I must say this was extremely enlightening, as well as a
little unsettling at times. While being a fan of the Royal
Family, I do not follow everything that goes, or went, on
and I experienced several moments of "Ah, now I see, now I
understand".
Camilla Parker Bowles is a remarkable woman, full of
contradictions, extremely loyal and dedicated, an exemplary
mother, a wonderful and faithful friend, still she relished
the comfortable and easy life she had had before becoming
the Duchess of Cornwall. That's when all her hard work
began, and she came through like the trooper she always was:
her head held high, and unapologetic. I was amazed at how
involved she is in charity work, and has always been, how
caring she is. It is a testament to Camilla's fortitude
that she was able to endure gracefully the horrendous times
she faced in the shadow of Lady Di, ridiculed and hounded by
the press, and reviled by the common people. Until the tide
began to change, and the world was ready to give her a chance.
THE DUCHESS is exceptionally well written; Penny Junor's
prose is literate and flowing, a pleasure to read from
beginning to end. The book suffers from very few editorial
issues apart from a glaring mistake regarding the 1972
Olympics, which I hope will be corrected in future editions.
Unfortunately, in the digital review copy photographs were
notably absent, and given the details on Camilla's youth
and life, I would have liked to see some pictures. Included
are a bibliography, and an extremely helpful index.
Naturally, every royal follower will want THE DUCHESS, but
it is a book I would highly recommend to people in need of
inspiration when facing adversity, or even merely for
historical reasons; seldom do we really read about how the
other half lives, let alone the Monarchy. What remains to be
seen is whether there will be a Queen Camilla, and that is a
very interesting topic that will be debated in the years to
come.
In the first in-depth biography of Camilla, Duchess of
Cornwall—the infamous other woman who made the marriage
of Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana "a bit
crowded"—esteemed royal biographer Penny Junor tells the
unlikely and extraordinary story of the woman reviled as
a pariah who, thanks to numerous twists of fate, became
the popular princess consort.
Few know the Windsor family as well as veteran royal
biographer and journalist Penny Junor. In The Duchess,
she casts her insightful, sensitive eye on the
intriguing, once widely despised, and little-known
Camilla Parker Bowles, revealing in full, for the first
time, the remarkable rise of a woman who was the most
notorious mistress in the world.
As Camilla’s marriage to Charles approached in 2005, the
British public were upset at the prospect that this
woman, universally reviled for wrecking the royal
marriage, would one day become queen. Sensitive to public
opinion, the palace announced that this would never
happen; when Charles eventually acceded to the throne,
Camilla would be known as the princess consort. Yet a
decade later British public sentiment had changed, with a
majority believing that Camilla should become queen.
Junor argues that although Camilla played a central role
in the darkest days of the modern monarchy—Charles and
Diana’s acrimonious and scandalous split—she also played
a central role in restoring the royal family’s
reputation, especially that of Prince Charles. A woman
with no ambition to be a princess, a duchess, or a queen,
Camilla simply wanted to be with, and support, the man
who has always been the love of her life. Junor contends
that their marriage has reinvigorated Charles, allowing
him to finally become comfortable as the heir to the
British throne.
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