Synopses & Reviews
In this social history of Buckingham Palace, Edna Healey mines the royal archives to take the reader into its moonlit gardens, up the grand staircase, and inside its tapestried walls. Dr. Johnson again holds forth in the library, Queen Victoria encores Mendelssohn in the music room, and in the royal chambers Fanny Burney wrestles once more with protocol.
Written with the assistance of the royal family, this lively and colorful biography of a house reveals not only the changing façade of the palace but also the changing face of a nation's culture, morals, fashions, and tastes.
Review
"Welcome to Chez Windsor! The book, prepared with the cooperation of the queen, Princess Margaret, and various members of the royal household, will definitely hold the interest of European history buffs." Brad Hooper
Review
"Meticulously chronicled and sumptuously illustrated. Edna Healey is conspicuously skillful." Booklist
Review
"Healey gives a lively description of succeeding changes in monarchs, entertainments, ceremony, architecture and amenities from Victoria (who introduced water closets) to Elizabeth II (who has lived in the palace since she was ten). Readers will delight in this well-written chronicle of the house of the House of Windsor." Jonathan Keates Times Literary Supplement
Synopsis
A biography of the world's most famous house and the story of its vital role in the history of a nation.
About the Author
Lady Edna Healey, beloved author of Wives of Fame and Lady Unknown: The Life of Angela Burdett-Coutts, died in 2010 in Sussex, England.