Princess Margaret by Christopher Warwick

''With the benefit of hindsight,'' she doubts that she and lost-love Peter Townsend would have been happy. We also hear, along the way, that she never thought herself talented enough to be a professional actress or singer. Margaret has not exactly told her own story to author Warwick, however rather she has let Warwick know (in ''many frank conversations'') what she takes exception to-from childhood apocrypha to legends of the postwar ''Margaret set'' (they were really the friends of buddy Sharman Douglas) to the latter-day insinuations of James Brough and Nigel Dempster. More recently, there was the matter of young Roddy Llewellyn: they really weren't alone in that celebrated Caribbean photo (another couple was cropped out) she and Roddy, moreover, ''shared nothing more torrid or passionate than what may be called a loving friendship'' (whatever that is supposed to mean). Whilst giving the full, insider story of the Princess's many love affairs, he also looks at her tireless work for charity, breaking many taboos along the way sdash Princess Margaret, not Diana, was the first Royal to champion HIV and AIDS awareness.The first to besmirch Princess Margaret, it appears, was her old governess Crawfie-who portrayed her (in The Little Princesses, 1950) as much less lovable than sister Elizabeth.

In his biography, Princess Margaret: A Life of Contrasts, Christopher Warwick redresses the balance. Described by the designer and hotelier, Anouska Hempel, as 'Witty, wicked and wonderful,' this charismatic princess not only brought colour and sex appeal into the Royal Family, but did much to help bring the monarchy and its attitudes into the modern world.Īdored younger daughter of King George VI and only sister of Queen Elizabeth II, Margaret was a pre-war princess whose world was hugely circumscribed by the strictures and protocol of another age, leading to conflict and misunderstanding in both her private and public life. One of the most controversial royal figures of the twentieth century, Princess Margaret was admired as well as vilified for most of her adult life.

Princess Margaret by Christopher Warwick