Crown and Country

by Edward Wessex

Who better to take you on a tour of London than Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest son, HRH Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex. Explores the development of England’s capital city, its culture and heritage.

Genres: History, Royalty, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Michael Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This gorgeous coffee-table volume is the outgrowth of a TV series created by the most artistic of the HRHs. While the book has certain problems, it’s nevertheless easy to lose a whole Sunday engrossed in its beautiful photography and anecdotal history. From the Saxon kings on, London and the monarchy have had a very close relationship -- though not always a friendly one. Edward’s goal here is to explore the physical remnants of that relationship, from the assortment of present and past palaces (not only Buckingham Palace, but Hatfield House, Whitehall, Westminster, Kensington, Hampton Court, and many more), other structures assorted with the Sovereign (the Tower, Blackheath, St. Paul’s, Kingston-upon-Thames, etc), and, naturally, the River Thames itself. The problem is, whoever the principal editor was (probably not Edward himself) didn’t do a very careful job. Often the same descriptive sentences are repeated in the text, then in the sidebar in the same spread, and then often in the photo captions as well. (One would think there would be plenty of other nonrepetitive things to say.) There are also an unsettling number of awkwardnesses and infelicities which lead the reader to stumble. Often the capsule history of a location jumps around chronologically, causing one to say, “Wait -- what?” Finally, the fact-checking is rather sloppy for a royal who took his degree in history: Christopher Wren did not use “dynamite” to demolish the ruins of Old St. Paul’s after the Great Fire, . . . dynamite having not been invented until the 19th century by Alfred Nobel. Still, it’s a lovely book.

[Sienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Packed with details, an enjoyable history from the perspective of the palaces & places in & around London. More bricks than drama, another aspect of a fascinating story.