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Rating: 
Summary: AN UNBELIEVABLE NUMBER OF FACTUAL ERRORS
Review: Every book must be judged on its own terms. Having just read Ms. Kelley's book, I accept it for what the author obviously intended it to be - tabloid gossip (which has its place in our society) wrapped it the aura of solid historical research. The book succeeds well as an exhaustive collection of passed down whispers and carefully extracted negative opinions and mean-spirited, flip comments from dozens of interview subjects. However, it fails very seriously as any kind of reliable or astute presentation of historical facts - let alone a fair or reliable interpretation of these events. It's rather distressing to read so many comments here on Amazon from people who think they have received an education in historical fact from Ms. Kelley's book. My name is Michael John Sullivan and I am a scholar of royal history. My latest book, "A FATAL PASSION - The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia", covers much the same territory as Kelley's. But it doesn't take a specialist to find the many factual errors Kelley has made. A trip to the history department of any local community college could have set matters correct on a number of issues. It's really astonishing that with all the resourses Ms. Kelley had at her disposal and all the assistance and money she received that a simple check of facts could not have been conducted. To detail everything incorrect would take far too much space here, but let's just take the first page of her beginning chapter (2) after the introduction - and the very first point that she attempts to make in the book. Kelley writes on page 5 that until l9l7 "many English kings never spoke the King's English. They spoke only German . . . This is utterly absurd! George I spoke German when the House of Hanover was imported to England at the beginning of the l8th Century, but his son learned English, and his grandson George III by the time of the American Revolution was a thorough Englishman. The monarchs of England may have kept marrying German spouses, but the children were brought up intensely British and spoke English as their first and foremost tongue. George IV was as English as Nigel Bruce, and Queen Victoria was obviously not a German-speaking monarch, nor her son, the very British Edward VII. How on earth Kelley can begin her book with such a ludicrous and false premise is beyond credibility. She obviously wants to impress the importance of the changing of the Royal Family's name from a German one in l9l7 to a created English one - but in so doing she totally fabricates and distorts and starts the reader off with a completely false sense of English Royal history. Her tendency to dispense with facts continues throughout the book as gossip is championed at the expense of simple, logical explanation - should the proper facts not be ignored. Dates, names, and relationships time and again are incorrectly stated. What a shame. When a small press tightly budgets a minor book, such oversights can be explained away. But what is the excuse of a multi-million dollar project such as this that had everyone from the CEO of Time-Warner on down being credited by Kelley in her introduction as having been deeply involved. History can be both fascinating AND correct, and it was sad that Kelley couldn't achieve both.
Rating:
Summary: Gossipy, and sometimes unbelievable!
Review: Kitty Kelley's books are pretty much all the same--gossipy, tabloid-style writing--but they are fun to read. Some of the theories that she puts across in the book are so outlandish that you wonder if you're not *really* reading one of the tabloids! If you like reading about the Royal Family, and aren't too serious, you'll probably enjoy it. As for the authenticity of what she writes...well, I'll leave that for you to decide!
Rating: 
Summary: sleazy gossip and sly rumors
Review: Those who compare this book to tabloid journalism are somewhat mistaken. Yes this book has its fair share of errors, and yes it is as sensationalistic as tabloid trash, but this book certainly shows enough research and gives enough credible sources to more or less accurately portray the scandals and "misbehavior" in the book. There are those who revere the Royals and don't want this stuff to be true because they want to look up to the Royal Family as the paradigm of family values and correct behavior, but I think with so many scandals and less-than-flattering revelations about the Royals' private lives through the years, most people I'm sure have become disillusioned with and cynical about them. Really, these bluebloods are just as flawed and ordinary as the rest of us, only difference being that they were born into the House of Windsor. What's their use? Well, they're good theatre. Also, they help out charities and other good causes, which is nice. David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"
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