LoveReading Says
Craig Brown describes his first interest in Princess Margaret as a “Where’s Wally” moment, intrigued by her presence in biography after biography. And nearly all these mentions are of bad temper, excessive drinking and smoking and rudeness giving rise to a fund of anecdotes which make good gossip – hence all those index appearances. Craig Brown brings us 99 glimpses of Princess Margaret, a gossipy, often scandalous picture of a woman he describes as a Cinderella in Reverse. ~ Sue Baker
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Ma'am Darling 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret Synopsis
She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando clam up. She cold-shouldered Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. John Fowles hoped to keep her as his sex-slave. Dudley Moore propositioned her. Francis Bacon heckled her. Peter Sellers was in love with her. For Pablo Picasso, she was the object of sexual fantasy. "If they knew what I had done in my dreams with your royal ladies he confided to a friend, they would take me to the Tower of London and chop off my head!"
Princess Margaret aroused passion and indignation in equal measures. To her friends, she was witty and regal. To her enemies, she was rude and demanding. In her 1950's heyday, she was seen as one of the most glamorous and desirable women in the world. By the time of her death, she had come to personify disappointment. One friend said he had never known an unhappier woman.
The tale of Princess Margaret is pantomime as tragedy, and tragedy as pantomime. It is Cinderella in reverse: hope dashed, happiness mislaid, life mishandled. Combining interviews, parodies, dreams, parallel lives, diaries, announcements, lists, catalogues and essays, Ma'am Darling is a kaleidoscopic experiment in biography, and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780008203610 |
| Publication date: |
21st September 2017 |
| Author: |
Craig Brown |
| Publisher: |
Fourth Estate Ltd an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
423 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
|
| Recommendations: |
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Craig Brown Press Reviews
`The amazing Craig Brown - the greatest satirist since Max Beerbohm
Elaine Showalter
`The wittiest writer in Britain today
Stephen Fry
`Every page is gold ... genius
Boris Johnson
`Outstanding, endlessly inventive and irresistible
Lynn Truss
The most screamingly funny living writer
Barry Humphries
`We love Craig Brown
Elton John
Praise for ONE ON ONE:
`Deliciously clever and amusing
The Washington Post
`One of the ten best books of the year
Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
`Hilarious
The Wall Street Journal
`A brilliant comic masterpiece by the greatest humorist in America or Britain today
Simon Sebag Montefiore
`Wistful and moving, as well as howlingly funny
A
.N. Wilson, The Spectator
About Craig Brown
Craig Brown is the author of The Marsh Marlowe Letters, The Little Book of Chaos and The Hounding of John Thomas. His writings for Private Eye, the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Telegraph have won numerous awards.
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