03/01/2021
The WWII diaries of Alathea Fitzalan Howard (1923–2001), an aristocrat and childhood friend of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, provide a captivating behind-the-scenes look at the royal family. Howard, who would have become the Duke of Norfolk had she been a boy, was sent by her estranged parents at age 16 to live with her grandfather and maiden aunt at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Park. A lonely adolescent who imagined that she was Marie Antoinette reincarnated, Howard chronicled her deepening friendship with the two princesses, who spent the war years at Windsor Castle. Howard describes attending Elizabeth’s 14th birthday party and taking dancing and drawing lessons with the sisters, and details her volunteer work at a home for displaced civilians. The diary entries, some only a few lines long, are intimate and endearing. Howard notes the “atmosphere of happy family life” at Windsor Castle, expresses pride in hearing Elizabeth’s voice on “the wireless,” and expresses approval of her friend’s budding romance with Philip Mountbatten. Howard also acknowledges the “heavy nameless cloud” of depression that sometimes settles over her, and reflects on her parents’ unhappiness. Royal watchers and British history buffs will cherish these frank reflections. (May)
"A must-read for all fans of The Crown and royal devotees."
"A dedicated and meticulous diarist, unfailingly recording the goings-on of her life as the royal family’s welcome interloper.... Howard’s observations imbue the reader with an intimacy of the casual, everyday life of 20th-century British royalty."
"A parade of delicious details....Alathea's daily diaries captured the royal family at ground level with endearing glimpses as well as astute observations."
Perfect for fans of 'The Crown,’ this is the kind of book you want to curl up with next to a roaring fire or on your next vacation. A fascinating, eyewitness account of the British Royal Family’s private life against the backdrop of the Second World War, ’The Windsor Diaries’ shows the King, the Queen, and the two princesses through the eyes of a girl who was invited into their home during Britain’s darkest hour. I could not put it down.
"Funny, astute, poignant and historically fascinating."
"I loved reading this. So reminiscent of my own childhood."
"Offers a fascinating glimpse of the sweet, simple, somewhat awkward young girl who would become Queen Elizabeth II."
"Fascinating insight into Elizabeth as a teenager."
"An unforgettable picture of those innocent, harmless times."
Times Literary Supplement
"A compelling and revealing insight into the teenage life of the then Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret."
"As bombs fell on London during World War II, a young Alathea was whisked to relative safety. The house next door? Windsor Castle. Her new best friends? Princess Margaret and the warm, awkward Princess Elizabeth, heir to the throne. They enjoy picnics, parties, outings to the movies and more, all of it lovingly captured in the diaries Alathea kept for years. This is a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse at the young royals."
"Reveals never-before-heard stories about Elizabeth and Margaret, bringing the young princesses’ private teenage lives into public view. Acting as both a historical document and an engaging series of vignettes, Howard’s diary entries give new insight into the British royal family."
"Reveals never-before-heard stories about Elizabeth and Margaret, bringing the young princesses’ private teenage lives into public view. Acting as both a historical document and an engaging series of vignettes, Howard’s diary entries give new insight into the British royal family."
12/01/2020
Famous for breaking the Watergate story with Bob Woodward, Bernstein backtracks to his early-1960s experiences as a teenage reporter at the Washington Star in Chasing History . Structured around Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool," Punch Me Up to the Gods recounts award-winning poet/screenwriter Broom's upbringing in Ohio as a Black boy crushing on other boys, falling into wild sex and drug use, and finally finding his way. Laden with Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, SAG, and Grammy honors, Foxx pivots here to talk about raising two very different daughters in Act Like You Got Some Sense (400,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for October 2020). In The Windsor Diaries , published posthumously, Howard records staying with her grandfather at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park during World War II and befriending princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Emmy Award winner Leslie Jordan, a viral sensation, pulls out the Southern charm to tell funny stories about life and celebrity in How Y'all Doing? (100,000-copy first printing). Having started the YouTube channel Dad, How Do I? to hand out the fatherly advice and how-to tips he wishes his dad had been around to give him, Kenney here reiterates that advice while surveying his childhood and how the channel went viral (75,000-copy first printing). In Sparring with Smokin' Joe, Lewis, director of journalism at York College, CUNY, recalls the months he spent in 1981 in the gym and on the road with boxing great Joe Frazier. Brat Packer McCarthy relates a life that encompasses acting, directing, and working as an award-winning editor-at-large at National Geographic Traveler . In Sunshine Girl , Margulies shows how she created order amid the chaos of a difficult childhood to become an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actress. In Sinatra and Me , Oppedisano, a longtime confidant and key member of the singer's management team, reflects on Sinatra's life, loves, and commitment to his craft (100,000-copy first printing). Finally, in The Wreckage of My Presence , actress/podcaster Wilson offers funny but heartfelt essays ranging from the joys of eating in bed to her obsessive need to be liked (100,000-copy first printing)
2021-01-30
At the outset of World War II, Howard (1923-2001) was sent to live with her paternal grandfather and maiden aunt at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Park, a few miles from the castle. Her new home was the seat of truly aristocratic stock. As Isabella Naylor-Leyland, who is married to Howard’s nephew, writes in the foreword, “Old Lord Fitzalan, a widower…was a distinguished elder statesman and leading Roman Catholic layman. Cumberland Lodge had been loaned to him for his lifetime as a grace-and-favour house by King George V in 1924.” At age 16, Alathea now lived just down the road from her childhood acquaintances Elizabeth and Margaret, the two Windsor princesses, who had also been moved from London for safety during the Blitz. Their friendship grew over the years as the girls skated together, enjoyed tea with the king and queen, took dancing and drawing lessons, practiced for Christmas pantomimes, and, eventually, attended dances and balls. The author diligently chronicles the stultifying round of royal visits and duties and her grinding work as a nurse in training, none of which makes for interesting reading. But she does provide some intriguing insights into the characters of the princesses as well as her own: She was an old-fashioned girl whose mother was deeply critical and emotionally remote, leading to bouts of depression. Though Alathea was uncomfortable in her present life and obsessed with the 18th century and the world of Marie Antoinette, the Windsors offered the charm and warmth of a loving family she never experienced. Eventually, she realized that Elizabeth, the duty-bound heir to the throne, would never love or need her the way she needed the princess, and she was crushed when she was not chosen to be her lady-in-waiting.
A litany of dull, dreary royal goings-on peppered with the diarist’s sharp, dark observations.
