Tom Bower's book on Meghan Markle

[SmileyFaces12]

It's out next week, titled 'Revenge'. I've ordered it already!

I agree with what @MaulPerton has written. The day to day life of a working royal - opening factories and visiting care homes and hospital wings - wasn't big or sexy enough for Meghan. She sees herself as another Angelina Jolie, an international humanitarian doing photogenic mercy trips to refugee camps in war zones, not someone who cuts a ribbon in Slough on a rainy Tuesday morning or shakes a pensioner's hand and feigns interest in a suburban car boot sale.

The international humanitarianism was all there on a plate for her, just like it was for Diana. Except, one took it up and flourished in that role. The other one didn't.

I feel like there are thousands of people in the world who are much more interesting than these two and the royal family. Why on earth would anyone read a book about this? I don't get it

H & M in themselves are not particularly interesting but their story is in a 'how not to do it' way. I can imagine it being used as a case study to teach future PR, marketing and branding students. We have downward social mobility when everyone else is trying to go up, we have an obvious lack of skill and talent masquerading as something worth buying, we have lessons in how to self-sabotage and score own goals. It's fascinating!

Bower portrays the queen as a petty, vindictive, mean spirited person who concerns herself with a pregnant woman all the way across the sea, when her mind should probably be on her husband of over 70yrs.

But she couldn't just think about her husband. Andrew was trying to use the funeral as an opportunity for self promotion so she had to say no military uniforms and she knew that all eyes would be on Harry. There probably had to be more thought put into things than have Peter Phillips walk in between the brothers.

There were enough column inches dedicated to the body language between the brothers, how long meeting with Charles and William etc. Meghan being there would have multiplied coverage of people rather than the actual funeral.

It's understandable why M didn't visit and HM would be relieved that she didn't intend. HM wouldn't have to make sure that H and M are not upset by anything they did or didn't do on this trip and M could avoid the spotlight and nest at home away from public glare.

The exerpt about her vanity fair cover was interesting. I’ve always felt the culture clash re royal philanthropy and Hollywood PR philanthropy so it will be interesting to read more about the sunshine Sachs relationship

I’m sure MM and PH will sue if they can.

I’m sure MM and PH will sue if they can

I don’t know: they haven’t bothered with the Tina Brown book.

They do seem to have the Mail in their sights.

Hopefully they will just see it as a work of fiction

The latest snippet from the book seems to allude that she cheated on Cory with Rory McIlroy. This is something I would sue the author about if I was her (and let’s be honest, they have a proven track record for being litigious)

It becomes even more clear why the royal family practise of ‘never complain, never explain’ comes in handy. If you object/sue over every little thing, are you admitting that the things you let slide are true? It will be interesting to see where they go with this!

Im not sure how accurate/reliable this account is but I have to admit it is very engaging and well written in style.

I wonder if they will get the "Royal Experts" i.e the Arbiters of the world to comment before reading the book.

More like how to do it. Spend more time with people who actually like/ love you and want to see you happy and successful. They left and that's exactly how you do it. They are more successful than they ever would have been playing second fiddle at the palace where they couldn't be themselves because they were more popular than HM and Katy+W

Why would any of that be remotely interesting? Turning up to cut ribbons in Peckham wearing a £15K outfit around people who can barely afford 3 meals per day.
I would also have to say no thanks. There are other ways to make an impact.

Well I personally can't wait to hear the hot take from Paul Burrell and the Loose Women.

For those who don't want to buy but enjoy a newspaper serialisation I offer today's episodes from The Times.

Meghan felt she was the victim. Prince Harry went in to fight for her.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ba5927c0-051f-11ed-bcb4-08dbdb6c5639?shareToken=be6768abe02874bd78c5b1b7212e3a466_

And another.

Meghan and Vogue editor philosophised over tea. Then it went sour.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b562cca8-051f-11ed-bcb4-08dbdb6c5639?shareToken=c62d389bcbcd45f826a1eacc2be1af777_

@ShamedBySiri - thank you for doing this, but unfortunately the articles are behind the paywall. Could you try the share token again? Thanks

Oh that's odd. It says share token in the link.
I can try but I'm not sure how else to do it than copying the link it generates.

Thanks. I'll try again.

I simply click on the arrow at the top of the article to share and c & p the link that is generated if I want to email or message someone and it says sharetoken.
If anyone knows another way to do it do let me know.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ba5927c0-051f-11ed-bcb4-08dbdb6c5639?shareToken=62667c4ad924c91cfc8a26660e6906cb

The other one.

Meghan and Vogue editor philosophised over tea. Then it went sour

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b562cca8-051f-11ed-bcb4-08dbdb6c5639?shareToken=0bfb0dcc405a4b0b019513309c2d7e83

The excerpts in The Times are laughably bad, I'm surprised they bothered really. Full of supposition and clichés. Some examples of the fascinating insights:

As a no-nonsense, self-deprecating, plain speaker with a good sense of humour who, when necessary, displayed a stiff upper lip, Camilla was most comfortable sloshing through the mud in a Barbour and gumboots.

During her life-long experience of England’s county set, Camilla had occasionally spotted self-important adventuresses. They were the sort she might call “a minx”.

Meghan’s excuses irritated Charles and perhaps also the Queen. The monarch must have found it hard to believe that Meghan could not resolve her differences with Thomas Markle

The behind the scenes of vanity fair is quite interesting. People are named and quoted quite openly.

I think it shows the clash of culture Hollywood v Royals clearly. She’s a product of her Hollywood upbringing just as Harry is a product of his

I wanted to hear more about the Sunshine sussex role and how successful they are in Hollywood (ignoring the PR spin)

Fine, but then don’t sign up to that role in the first place. That’s what the job was. She chose to marry in. Nobody forced her.

We could have saved all the fuss of their OTT ‘spectacle’ wedding that she untruthfully claimed wasn’t even the real thing, but which gave her a chance to invite all the slebs she hadn’t met before and who seem to have dropped them now.

A key and interesting issue seems to involve the setting up of their Sussex foundation and who exactly the independent trustees would be and the kind of scrutiny they would experience from them.

Thanks for the links, they've worked now. Both those articles were very interesting.
It really strikes me about the lack of understanding on both sides.

Thanks for doing that @ShamedBySiri - the Sunday Times had sold out at my newsagent this morning.

This reminds me of the Lady C book, except it's more smearing of others than H&M.

This book is a Meghan hating Frankenstein. A mash up of deranged twitter, the Fall, YouTube hate channels, that I fully expect that he will give a 'behind the scenes' look at how H&M acquired 'dolls' and named them Lili and Archie. It is in that territory ...........................😂😂😂