I have pre-ordered Andrew Lownie's Book (out I think 14th August) A thread for those interested in "Entitled"

[BasiliskStare]

So for those interested in this book about the Yorks. I will read it and interested to hear from others who have or to give an opinion.

No spitting , no gouging 😂

Oh god the blows just keep coming don't they - though please don't imagine I'm sympathising

The Royals have always done exactly what they want. Rules are for little people.

Can't see this changing anytime soon.

While reading this I have regularly echoed in my head that Charles had said to Diana back in the mid 80s
Why can't she be more like SF. I always thought no way but now I'm just Noooooo Waaaayyyy !

Iirc in the midst of the Andrew/Virginia media furore it was Andrew who drove QE2 to church. I thought that was a very pointed 2 fingers to the world.

I saw it differently. I saw the head of the Church of England, making the sinner, her son, take her to church, to repent his sins. I thought it quite apt. But yes, I can see why others don’t see it that way.

Your take on it is interesting @NewAgeNewMe
As we say in Irish - “Súil eile” which means another eye - a different perspective.
I hadn’t seen it the way you did.

QE2's support for Andrew straight after the car crash interview by going to church with him would obviously be misconstrued if she was taking him for repentance!
Highly unlikely

How would that work when she was seen out riding with him within days of the interview then?

Giving him a piece of her mind? I can see both ways tbh. But as a regular churchgoer that was my initial reaction.

Yep-absolutely nowhere else to have a confidential conversation except during a photo op hack. That’s why her regular meetings with the prime minister always take place on horseback…..

As someone who is cynical of the C of E I just saw the church going as hypocrisy and getting away with it.

Well, definitely- but tbf, in the mid 80 s SF was just a thumping great Sloane, loud as hell, but without the reputation she came to deserve.

Im sure Charles meant ‘Why can’t she be uncomplicated?’. I think the RF like uncomplicated.

I agree it would be jarring but I think QE 2 would have seen things differently. We know she took her faith seriously and wasn’t a great intellectual thinker - she may have thought that accompanying A to church was the right thing to do, and would be good for him.

I think it was and is utter hypocrisy for him to go to church so publicly. I’m not a believer but I understand that Christians welcome repenting sinners and that no one would be turned away from a church.

But you need to be repentant, do have thought!

interesting that Virginia Giuffre's memoir is going to be published.

She probably never wanted to lace into the Prime Ministers as fiercely.

And though they were a mixed bunch, I don’t think any PMs ever deserved a bollocking!

That will be interesting but incredibly tragic.

Is it being published in the UK or just the US ?

I agree with you mostly - but we know that palace staff overhear things and I can imagine she thought it might be safer to get out in the open.

Who knows what they talked about though? I suspect the Queen might have avoided hearing about the gruesome details of Andrew's behaviour as far as she could. She was a very old lady by then.

Do you think 60 year-old men, or 50 year-old men, or 40 year-old divorced men, or 30 year-old men, or young men who've been abroad in one of the services, tell their mummies everything they did?

Or their partners I suspect.

Course they don't!

But given QE2 was told constantly by Aides, PSs, diplomatic and security staff... she chose to ignore everything she heard. She was warned.

A bit coincidental that they were riding where there were cameras, surely? I’m sorry-I don’t think TLQ can be excused in this case. And neither can the King be excused allowing Andrew to holiday at Balmoral. Even if he is in a different house!

I try to believe all kinds of strange things if there is evidence for them but it would utterly amaze me if the Queen knew the extent, scale and severity of Andrew’s sexual misconduct. I’m sorry- I just can’t imagine it. She would have known he slept around, sure, but unless an aide or secret service official told her the full details, she cannot have known. Andrew would never have told her. MI 5 might have - but it would have been a Bowdlerised version.

The financial stuff - more likely, I think.

So this incredibly perceptive, incredibly switched on, incredibly well informed monarch who was regularly briefed would have known nothing about Andrew’s behaviour? Is that even remotely credible?