
The Quest for Queen Mary
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– Unabridged
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The highly acclaimed unexpurgated notes taken by James Pope-Hennessy for his official biography of Queen Mary, the present Queen's grandmother. Published in full for the first time and edited by much-admired royal biographer Hugo Vickers.
When James Pope-Hennessy began his work on Queen Mary's official biography, it opened the door to meetings with royalty, court members and retainers around Europe. The series of candid observations, secrets and indiscretions contained in his notes were to be kept private for 50 years. Now published in full for the first time and edited by the highly admired royal biographer Hugo Vickers, this is a riveting, often hilarious portrait of the eccentric aristocracy of a bygone age.
Giving much greater insight into Queen Mary than the official version, and including sharply observed encounters with, among others, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the Duke of Gloucester, and a young Queen Elizabeth, The Quest for Queen Mary is set to be a classic of royal publishing.
- Listening Length9 hours and 24 minutes
- Audible release dateSept. 28 2018
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB07GSZ6RJ3
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
Listening Length | 9 hours and 24 minutes |
---|---|
Author | James Pope-Hennessy, Hugo Vickers - editor |
Narrator | Tim Bentinck, Gareth Armstrong |
Audible.ca Release Date | September 28 2018 |
Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B07GSZ6RJ3 |
Best Sellers Rank | #83,213 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #270 in Historiography (Books) #338 in Great Britain History #1,013 in Royalty Biographies (Books) |
Customer reviews
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Top reviews from Canada
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However, since it is in the kindle form, very difficult to flip to sources as one reads the book!
A novel is excellent on Kindle, but for such a book like this, I would not recommend this if one wants to view sources as one reads. Maybe there is a way to flip back and forth? Technically challenged here!
Each section is full of insightful observations.
The author is unsparing but not unkind.
Take away, her royal relatives in England, Germany and Denmark are either crazy or so excentric as to be irrelevant living in a world of palaces and fancy food. Nothing worth remembering. As for Queen Mary she is either nice or not, cold or shy, her husband the king was ugly and screamed at his kids. She did not like children so she ignored her kids. All disfunctional. The servants and governess are all poor and living in squalid quarters in retirement largely forgotten by their former royal masters some of whom were Nazis. Not worth the money.
Top reviews from other countries

There were without doubt some crumbs of information in the book (some of them repeated from the various sources interviewed throughrout the text of the book) but not enough to be engrossing or indeed to keep me interested in the subject. I ended up finishing the book out of a sense of duty rather then enjoyment.
There were a few funny bits in it; for example the old Duke of Gloucester asking if Uncle Eddy (The Duke of Clarence) was homosexulist?!" Indeed the account of Pope Hennesey's weekend spent with the old Duke and Duchess of Gloucester was probably the most lively in the entire book.
There were times when the book seemed to be more about the people who were interviewed by Pope Hennesey than Queen Mary herself and PH's comprehensive pen pictures of the interviewees make up quite a lot of the text. Yes I must admit that it added to the understanding of the interviews given, it really does not add any important details about the true subject, Queen Mary. It is rather a shame that the book fails to both inform and entertain, as Hugo VIckers is one of our finest "royal" writers.
PH's book is to be re-released in January next year, I am sure that will be worth reading and perhaps then the present book will be more meaningful? As of the moment I would find it very difficult to recommend the book at a good read to anyone. On the plus side, the book has made me want to read more about come of the characters in the book such as The Duke of Clarence and Queen Mary's mother, the DUchess of Teck.
So, in quest of Queen Mary, I do not think the aim was achieved in this book and the character of Mary was most certainly not unlocked. Overall the book was rather dull.




“Royalty” is revealed as a precarious house of cards, dependent on legions of sycophantic courtiers to prop it up, and lumpen masses to meekly accept the proposition that blue blood breeds entitlement and requires deference.
Mary we learn, despite her froideur, was far from the worst of them.
The puzzle is why we put up with it.