Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #943210 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Customer Reviews

The most beautiful Princess
Alice of Battenberg was said to be. She, a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, brought up in the usual way of the turn of the century of Royalty. She married the Prince Andrew of Greece and became the mother of several daughters and a son: Philippe the consort of Queen Elisabeth II.. Well, often here the knowledge about her ends; maybe some remember her in her nun-robes at the Queen' s coronation as a kind of "bizarre figure" in the glamorous environment. But did this exquisite creature turn into that "bizarre woman"?
Hugo Vickers unfolds in his "Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece" her life step by step. From the more traditional beginnings, even though her deafness sets her apart already during that time), through the deep crisis in her life which will bring terrible unhappiness and the need for mental care till she finds her way in life. So this is not the traditional biography of one of these princesses, too loyal to be real and really interesting, but a story of a woman who had to go through hell and in the end found her way of life. Her marriage was not a very happy one and she was too troubled to be a very good mother, but she was a good woman and one can only find sympathy for. Hugo Vickers find on every page the right words and his picture of princess Alice is sympathetic without hiding anything. In the end one does not find Princess "bizarre" at all. One understands pretty well why she quite loved by her family. This biography is extremely well written, with a great flow and style. On top of her life story the reader gets in inside into the closely knitted world of royalty. Of course, one understand a bit more about the Duke of Edinburgh too. All in all, a book great appreciated and equally recommended

The fascinating story of a forgotten Princess
Prince Philip is often overlooked as a person in his own right, this book gives a fascinating insight into his mother's unusual life and Philip's unsettled childhood. Princess Alice was a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, sister to Lord Louis Mountbatten and wife of Prince Andrea of Greece. She was born at Windsor Castle, was brought up in the periphery of the extended Royal family and moved to Greece upon her marriage. She gave birth to four daughters before her only son Philip was born. She was exiled from Greece twice with her husband facing trial for treason. This book reveals for the first time the truth surrounding Princess Alice's breakdown during the 1930s, a period which saw her draw away from her ever growing family. Her husband became an increasingly remote figure, both emotionally and geographically and it was only with his death that Alice was able to reclaim his love.

With Philip's marriage to Princess Elizabeth, heir apparent to the British throne, the reclusive Alice was drawn back into public awareness, an unusual figure in her grey habit at both the Royal Wedding and later at the Coronation.

Hugo Vickers has produced an insightful biography of a fascinating and often forgotten woman, the mother-in-law of the Queen. This book is extremely well-researched and accredited, and as well as being tremendously factual is also a compelling and totally enjoyable read.

Barking...
Hugo Vickers has been remarkably open about his subject in this splendid biography. It would have been so easy to write the hagiography one would more usually expect on a person who was the current monarch's mother-in-law.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with a previous reviewer who said by the end of the book he didn't regard Princess Alice's behaviour as bizarre. I think it's undeniable that her behaviour in the latter half of her life was very strange indeed - that, however, doesn't make her any the less loveable or less of a 'good person'. The blunt descriptions of her troubles make it very easy to see WHY she was a bit of an oddball, but oddball she certainly was.

I thoroughly recommend this book, not only for the history unavoidably contained in the story, but as an insight into the life of an attractive and appealing personality forced by circumstance to endure a great deal of turmoil and hardship.