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The Royals cover art

The Royals

By: Kitty Kelley
Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
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Summary

They are the most chronicled family on the face of the globe. Their every move attracts headlines. Scores of books have tried and failed to penetrate the royal facade. Now Kitty Kelley has gone behind palace walls to provide the first three-dimensional, comprehensive, and evenhanded portrait of the men and women who make up the British Royal family.

Kelley spent more than four years investigating the royal family. In addition to meticulous research into documented sources, she conducted hundreds of exclusive interviews with past and present employees of the royal household, royal friends and relations, courtiers, members of Parliament, and other intimate observers, raising the curtain on this most secretive family. Here are lonely royal children brought up without a proper education in isolated and artificial surroundings, 20th-century adolescents with 19th-century touchstones. Here are the sexual ambiguities, the alcoholism, gambling, and womanizing that were common in the House of Windsor long before Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. No one is spared; here are the scandals of the last decades: the doomed marriages, and the husbands, wives, lovers, and children caught in their wake and damaged beyond repair.

Illuminating the Windsors' arrogance, naiveté , and lusts - as well as hard work, dedication, and ability to survive the most humiliating disclosures - The Royals is Kitty Kelley's richest, most iconoclastic, historically significant, and compelling work.

©1997 H.B. Productions, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Royals

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

More accurate than the media drivel!

Any additional comments?

I suspect Kitty Kelley received heavy criticism because her books reveal things that powerful people don't want revealed. Her sources here are former servants, formal documents and people who have witnessed interactions between each of these royals and others at public events. When the book was published, it was trashed as fantasy and rubbish. Since then solid evidence has come to light that confirms much of what Kelley wrote, including the two Royal children who were 'stored' in a psychiatric hospital until they died recently, this because their Learning Disabilities were considered an embarrassment.

This book is well written and narrated.

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not well researched

The narrator insists on calling Diana " the Princess of Wales ". - she was never called the Princess of Wales in the U.K. - she was Diana Princess of Wales or Princess Diana . The use of the word Monarchy split up into three vowels is so irritating - MON - ARCH -Y - why ?

Every Duke is called DOOK . Apart from the narration the book is ok , not great but ok .

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The narrator?!?!

I've always enjoyed Kitty Kelley's writing - but please re-record this one with someone familiar with English names and pronunciations! Ms Van Dyck commits dozens of errors, many of which are painful - Althrop, Altrincham, Home (as in the PM), even Jacqueline (as in Kennedy) to mention just a few. It gets irritating really quickly.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic listen

Excellent story and an eye opener for sure. Highly recommend.Changed my view of the Monarcy somewhat

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A lazy narration full of mispronunciations

I enjoyed this as a book, but the narration was constantly infuriating and full of mistakes. Of course, it’s an American book and one expects American pronunciation, but this reading constantly gets basic slightly unusual words wrong - furore, for example - and, most infuriatingly, just about every proper name in the book. Maybe Althorpe and St John and Slough are forgiveable, if lazy, but when she doesn’t even know how to say Pepys, or Canterbury...

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Outrageously biased against the British Royals

I am so disappointed to find this book overtly biased against the British Royal Family. But considering that it's written by Kitty Kelly I should have expected it. Hoping to discover new information about them and their lives, I found only a regurgitating of hackneyed so called 'facts' concerning them. Mostly fabrication and tittle tattle. What a let down.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

sadly this book has 2 things going against it
1) The narration is awful. when I listened to the sample I thought it would be ok despite the reviews but it gets worse as you go on
2) it feels like a snarky gossip column which is a shame because there are also some quite interesting bits but I got to chapter 4 and decided to return the book

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Awful

Awful, awful, awful book, full of sensationalism and factual inaccuracies. narration that was painful to listen to due to the continually mispronounced names and place names. I really don't rate it in the slightest.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Entertaining

I rather enjoyed revisiting the history of this rather strange bunch of chancers. I've never been a royalist and listening to this has not changed by mind in any way. It's always interesting to look at ourselves through the eyes of a non-Brit, and the antics of the Windsors, combined with the reverence they receive from certain quarters, is enough to make us a global laughing stock.

The narration was pretty dire to be honest. The pronunciation had me chuckling on many occasions. But the book was written by an American so it's fair enough that it was narrated by an American.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A royal performance.

I like reading about the royals or in this case listening to a story about them. So it is no surprise that I chose this title. I liked listening to this audio and it was ably read. However many books you read about the royals (and there are many) there are different slants on their lives, be it pro, anti, hostile, or toadying. You pays your money you makes your choice. Is there anything different in this book that we didn't already know? Well, in my opinion for what it is worth there are always slight differences it just depends on the author and how they choose to tell the story. I liked it (but, I'm a royalist), others may not. You pays your money you makes your choice.

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