'Courtiers' by Valentine Low

[RandomPenguinHouse]

Extracts of this were being discussed on a previous thread ('The Times) which just finished.

I'm interested in buying this book, despite never having ever bought any other book about the Royal Family and never having watched The Crown.

I'm interested however in the archaic rituals of the Royal Court and how it works as an employer, and also how the courtiers advise.

Yes the excerpts were focused on Harry and Meghan but presumably that's just for clicks given the relevant timing, and that the book goes well beyond that.

Poignant that in the synopsis for it on The Foyles website it says:

The Queen, after a remarkable 70 years of service, is entering the final seasons of her reign without her husband Philip to guide her. Meanwhile, Charles seeks to define what his future as King will be, with his court wielding ever greater influence as he plans for his imminent accession.

www.foyles.co.uk/witem/biography/courtiers,valentine-low-9781472290908

Anyone else thinking of buying this?

The queen had so few people she could let her guard down with.

Harry is on the other side of the velvet rope now.

Me too. That was the turning point for me. It was just so obvious it wasn’t going to work.

I don't think he believed it - because he didn't want to. When my FIL was clearly (to me) close to death, my MIL, SIL and DH could clearly not see it. I urged my DH to visit him while he could and he got angry with me, said he'd visit in four months' time (ILs live OS), just couldn't see what I could, which was that FIL was close to death. He died a month later, DH never saw him again. There is none so blind as those that will not see.

I think he is very focused on himself and not very aware of the wider picture.

@Backstreetsbackalrightdadada

I agree that H and M should state who made the racist comment about Archie rather than have everyone speculating.
I also believe they should state which reporter used the N word so that they can be sacked.

Why H&M teased it in an interview and then refused to say… That was frustrating!!

Possibly to inflame and create more traction around their narrative?

Of course these comments are unacceptable but Michelle Obama immediately after the OW interview said they should have taken this as a “teachable moment”’ with their family. Instead it appears they collected slights / insults to deploy unproductively at a later date.

Also MM was not there or even married or pregnant when these words were said to Harry alone. Harry said the question was asked to him before they were married. This doesn’t make it any less offensive but MM muddied the timeline by suggesting it was said later when she was pregnant with Archie - possibly for greater effect?

The Behaviour Panel (I linked to earlier) pick this all apart from the OW interview - they suggest it was either KC or PW explained by some complicated analysis of accents. But if this was the case why would MM allow KC the racist to walk her down the aisle? Unless they didn’t see it as a dealbreaker at the time - or maybe H never even told her at the time?

M does that a lot. There are a lot of pointed statements directly reported about the meaning of "service" "collaborating" etc. They are not unpleasant because she is unaware or unschooled in British ways. British culture does not require a Phd to interpret and people from all over the world with limited life experience and less education than M who move here and embrace it. The statements are unpleasant because they are intended to be mean spirited and sneering. Her girlfriends like JM have also exhibited this. We all know the mean girls from since we were at school and it is really quite obvious that M is not kind, mature, charitable, caring in any combination.

If she was, then she would have left Harry alone, especially after becoming aware of their incompatibility. She doesn't genuinely believe that she can overhaul him or his pale, stale family whom she cannot stand. She was hoping to extend her control over them via her controlling of Harry and it fell flat and she is still licking her wounds very publicly.

I thought it was interesting that she didn't head home to see the dc before the funeral. She must have been desperately missing them but my theory is that she didn't want to leave Harry alone in the UK. Could picture someone like Mike Tindall coming over with some beer and getting through to Harry if he was on his own

Maybe she isn’t licking her wounds - maybe it’s all gone to plan?

She has moved from potentially facing the end or at least a crossroads in her regional acting career to becoming one of the most famous women in the world - adored and feted by many for a long time (arguably this is declining?) with a huge platform, accrued over $200 million in a year, married the Prince and had the babies.

Thats some spectacular trajectory. When she spoke at the One Young World conference she seemed very satisfied with herself.

The bullying allegations have been going on for years - she doesn’t care - she can style it out in her mind and the RF chose not to publish the investigations - so she is home and dry. I would imagine that The Courtiers book is a distraction whilst they wait for H memoirs to eclipse every thing and blow them all out of the water.

Suggestions that H is hastily rewriting to tone it down after HMQ death might be a read herring - now she is not here he might be rewriting and ramping it right up in counterclaim to this book and any perceived demotion etc they feel from KC.

Scorched earth will also have them laughing all the way to the bank - again.

Sadly, I think you're completely on the money there @DFOD

with a huge platform, accrued over $200 million in a year,

Where are you getting the "over $200 million in a year" figure from?

I also wonder if it’s an engineered move that the palace will feel “forced” to publish the findings of the bullying investigations if media speculation escalates after this book is published?

I believe it may have only been held back due to timing and it overshadowing the Jubillee. Or maybe - as indicated in this book - the findings found the palace system at fault for not acting or protecting appropriately as a basic employer duty of care staff exposed to bullying. Or that there was other unsavoury “back stabbing”‘behaviours endemic in the system that amounted to bullying as well.

Yes, I agree that it was her plan but she will not let go of the cloak of victimhood either. She needs to be publicly viewed as a David overcoming a Goliath so that her ability to rake in the millions is feted rather than seen as grabby and distasteful.

It could be that KC has the power to overturn HMQs decision to keep the findings private and will use it as leverage now that his fragile, sick mother is out of the picture. I would definitely like to see the findings for myself. I suspect that we will only get a very watered down version in the end.

I am inclined to believe the rumour that JM and MM were nasty towards little Charlotte as KM is always the consummate professional and as poker faced as they come but she could not hide her feelings during the walkabout and the lioness instinct definitely kicked in.

I agree that MM seems to have done fabulously well for herself, I assume she is very happy with where her life is at and excited about her next projects and ambitions.

I don’t think the bullying report will be released. I suspect it found that the palace didn’t follow procedures properly and was at liability as an employer.
Ironically, by attempting to protect Meghan & Harry, the palace may have failed to protect its actual employees.

$100m Netflix,

$25m Spotify,

$20m PenguinRandomHouse,

$3m annual salary (media speculation) for BetterUp - more if he took a share package their value has trebled.

$1m for each speaker engagement.

OW/AppleTV MH series (unknown)

And their $14m home was supposedly a bargain and reportedly at least doubled if not trebled in value in the year since they bought it.

Surely there are also confidentiality issues involved?

I've read the whole thread, and I think there is something else to add to this message from yesterday about parallels in posters' own lives.

I think lots of the 'MM critical' posters on here have experienced someone like Meghan (or how Meghan comes across) in their own lives, whether family, work, school or university etc. They've seen a version of this story play out in different guises.

I.e. an often very physically attractive woman who can be saccharine sweet to those she needs on side, but it's all essentially fakery and manipulation to serve her own agenda with no regard for the hurt caused to others.

I suspect many of these posters are quite savvy, non 'fluffy' women, and see right though the nonsense from H&M, having dealt with someone like MM in the real word.

But those 'figures' are just rumoured, aren't they? Simply made up by 'sources'?

Have any of the organisations involved come out and confirmed any of them?

I don't for a second believe anyone is paying Harry $1 million for a speaking engagement. Even the likes of Clinton or Obama don't command that much.

Plus, even if the NF and Spotify deals are what you claim, which I doubt, they will be production deals, not a 9 figure lump sum paid into their bank accounts. Many have noted the very large number of people involved in producing Meghan's podcasts. Their salaries will presumably have been paid from the sums quoted. Not to mention that the deals will be contingent on actually coming up with content which meets Netflix's or Spotify's standards. Two years on, they've still produced nothing at all for NF.

I'd also add, that if NF are indeed paying them a 9 figure sum, they will be expecting rather more than an earnest documentary about the Invictus Games. They'll be wanting royal gossip, and lots of it.

100% in my personal experience.

Have seen / been through it once and now can see the red flags, behaviours and patterns of this personality type.

They get very far with their charisma / persona but are ruthless and have a very fragile ego beneath.

If they suspect you see through them or you dare to lift the cloak - all hell breaks out.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.ccn.com/meghan-markle-prince-harry-1-million-speech/

This is quite interesting - and makes it obvs the reason PH can command high fees is purely down to his royal connections.

Agree with these posts too. It’s a familiar tale to some. I’ve seen a few photos of Meghan off guard when her expression tells a very different story to the sweet, charming and perpetually grinning persona she usually projects. It’s like the mask has slipped.
There was a report somewhere that Harry had wanted to stay in the UK for a few days after the funeral and fly his children over, but he didn’t want an arguement with Meghan over it. She wanted to get the hell out. I imagine an arguement with her would not be pleasant.

Well yes of course. But it’s fairly straightforward to do a statement that protects the necessary confidentiality. This is already an issue in the public domain.