Power and the Palace

<P><B>Covering 200 years of royal history from Queen Victoria to King Charles, and looking forward to the future reign of King William, Power and the Palace is the gossip-laden and highly revelatory account of the relationship between the sovereign and the prime minister—the real story behind The Crown.</B><br><br>Power and the Palace lifts the lid on the mysterious power nexus at the heart of the British state: the secretive and little understood relationship between the monarchy and the government. In vivid, page-turning prose, Valentine Low takes us behind the scenes of the weekly audience to uncover the ever-changing dynamic between sovereign and prime minister—from the romance and flattery that bound Victoria and Benjamin Disraeli, to the personal and political gulf that separated Elizabeth II from Margaret Thatcher. <br><br>He reveals how the monarchy has gradually ceded political power over the past two hundred years while behind closed doors fighting to keep its finances secure—ensuring the long-term survival of the institution. But it has not all been smooth sailing, and the book includes moments of dramatic tension when the relationship threatened to unravel. <br><br>Based on nearly 100 interviews with senior politicians, top civil servants, royal aides and constitutional experts, Power and the Palace rewrites our understanding of the political power of the monarchy.<br><br>"Lively ... peppered with entertaining lines. One of [Low's] skills as a journalist is an ability to sift through mountains of archive material and pick out the gems." —Telegraph</P>