The Royal Representative

Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

You may have seen this image on “Mandy’s British Royalty” and “August Annotations”:

This is a new idea I have launched for the royal authors of the world. “Mandy’s British Royalty” will now help publicize your books or even a book in the making, specifically through the August Annotations blog.

Add your link to my blogroll, write a guest commentary, or submit an excerpt from your book (or do all three!). Get noticed!

I started an online course in the study of U.S. government. It is intensive and lasts only three weeks with essays, tests, and discussions every single day. So that means my posting here will be very limited. In other words, non-existant.

My planned upload of my royal collection has been put on the back burner for now, but expect that to be seen in early February. And don’t worry about a January commentary at August Annotations - Miss Jerramy Fine has that all under control! She is my guest writer and a total godsend!

Jerramy is the author of “Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess”. Raised by hippies in Western Colorado, Jerramy went to England in pursuit of her true love - the now-betrothed Peter Phillips.

She didn’t marry Peter, but her life and her book are full of the wonderful adventures she’s had by trying to meet him. On the shelves January 10th, 2008.

I was just looking at an old backup CD of royal photos and other items, when I found this letter from 2003. It is a response to my letter praising Queen Noor’s memoirs:

Sun, 1 Jun 2003

Dear Mandy,

Her Majesty Queen Noor is most grateful for your kind and supportive words regarding her recently published book, Leap of Faith, Memoirs of an Unexpected Life, and has requested me to convey her most sincere appreciation for sharing your thoughts with her. It is always very encouraging to hear such positive feedback from kind individuals, such as yourself, who take the time to write. Her Majesty’s book serves only to strengthen her commitment to promote sustainable development, cross-cultural and interfaith understanding and dialogue, and God willing, global peace. Queen Noor sends you her very best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Hania Dakhgan
Private Secretary to HM Queen Noor
Amman- Jordan

It was so exciting to receive this. I greatly admire Queen Noor and find the Middle East - Jordan in particular - to be fascinating.

I have just added a new book to my online “bookcase” at Amazon.com. Diana, by Sarah Bradford is an extremely revealing book that I simply had to include. Royal Representative reader Kelly asked if I had read the book. Since I had read Sarah Bradford’s book on the Queen, Kelly wanted to know if I had read her book on Diana. I said that I hadn’t, but wanted to.

I decided to finally go down to the book store and buy my own copy. I pored over it and started developing a review (due in December). Take a look at the reviews at Amazon and see if it is a book that you want to include in your own collection.

After Charlotte Casiraghi’s profile (Nov.) comes my review for “Diana” by Sarah Bradford. An extraordinary book!

What’s on my bookcase…?

Don’t head for the beach without a good royal book! Remember to stop in and see what I recommend at my Amazon.com Reading List (these are the books that sit on my own bookshelf, mostly worn with fragile spines from repeated perusal!).

I’ve just been the first to review Jubilee: A Celebration of 50 Years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Tim Graham. I found that it did not have a photo of the book, so I uploaded that too. This is such an incredible photographic essay of the Queen’s life and work, and I highly recommend it.

Book on love and sex marked end of the affair for Princess
By Lucy Bannerman

As a gift to soothe a broken heart, it was an unusual choice.

Then again, the 18th-century lovers’ handbook given to Princess Margaret on the day that she ended her relationship with Peter Townsend is an unusual book.

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Adrienne Clarkson, former Governor-General of Canada, has written her memoirs. In it, she has decided to take “a swipe” at Her Majesty and even the late Queen Elizabeth.

Clarkson’s book, “Heart Matters”, was the opportunity to take the Queen to task publicly. Is it a political issue? A national issue? No. It was neither of those.

Let me save you your hard-earned money and reveal the plot now - it was jealousy.

According to the Daily Telegraph, “The Queen’s decision to powder her nose at the dinner table has so shocked the delicate sensibilities of Adrienne Clarkson, Canada’s former governor-general, that she has used her memoirs to draw attention to it. She also took a swipe at the Queen Mother’s use of mismatched china.”

It is Clarkson who should take lessons from the Queen; HM would never gripe about something so petty, least of all in her memoirs. Then again, the Queen has lived a remarkable life. She doesn’t need to use worthless filler.
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