The funny and tragic, bestselling biography of The Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, perfect for fans of Netflix's The Crown.

A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR * A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR * A DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE YEAR

'I honked so loudly the man sitting next to me dropped his sandwich' Observer

She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando clam up. She cold-shouldered Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine and Pablo Picasso lusted over her. To her friends Princess Margaret was witty and regal, to her enemies, she was rude and demanding. Ma'am Darling looks at her from many angles, creating a kaleidoscopic biography, and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.

: The hilarious, bestselling royal biography, perfect for fans of The Crown

About the Author

Craig Brown's last book, Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret won both the James Tait Black Prize for Biography and the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature. His previous book, One on One, was long-listed for the Samuel Johnson prize for Non-Fiction. He has been writing the parodic celebrity diary for Private Eye magazine for over thirty years, and is currently a columnist for the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. Over the years, he has written for a wide range of newspapers and magazines, including Vanity Fair, the Sunday Times, the New Statesman, the Spectator, the Guardian and the New York Review of Books. He lives in Aldeburgh, Suffolk with his wife Frances Welch; they have two children.

Reviews

'Ma'am Darling is fascinating. Brown has done something amazing with Ma'am Darling: in my wilder moments, I wonder if he hasn't reinvented the biographical form' Observer

'A biography teeming with the joyous, the ghastly and the clinically fascinating' Hannah Bett, The Times

'Consistently hilarious and eye-opening' Tim Adams, Observer

'Heaven' India Knight, Sunday Times

'The only royal biography of the year worth handing the Queen's head over for, Ma'am Darling is a modern and unconventional portrait of an old-fashioned princess as distilled and pickled through the genius of Craig Brown' Helen Davies, Sunday Times

'Craig Brown has brilliantly drawn together the component parts of a complex woman' The Oldie

'A playful, impish approach...Brown gives us lots of wonderful incidental detail...The deftly amused writing constantly tugs the corners of your mouth upwards' Evening Standard

'A cross between biography and satire that perfectly displays Brown's rare skills as journalist and parodist', Mark Lawson, Guardian, Books of the Year

'Hugely entertaining ... brilliantly written, with a wonderful sardonic edge but also a thoughtful, at times even moving tone' Spectator

'If you want a book that will have you punching your pillow in helpless laughter, this is it. Moreover, he has invented an entirely new genre, of which it is a masterpiece ... The list of the Princess's 'rumoured' lovers - up to and wickedly including Dusty Springfield - sparked my decision to buy this book as a Christmas present for everybody I know, and for those I don't.' Country Life

'Hilarious' Sunday Telegraph

'Brilliant' Evening Standard

'Craig Brown achieves the impossible by finding a tone in which to write about monarchy. Not bitchy, not snide, not angry, but not fawning nor deferential either. Just funny.' David Hare, Guardian

Book Information
ISBN 9780008203634
Author Craig Brown
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Fourth Estate Ltd
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 280g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 27mm