Review of 'Ninety-nine glimpses of Princess Margaret' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is not your standard biography, but more like an examination of Margaret's life from written recollections of people who encountered her. And I would emphasize "encounter" rather than "knew" because the author shares glimpses of Margaret from the memoirs of her former lover, Peter Townsend, to a brief meeting with Supremes singer Mary Wilson at the Royal Variety Performance.
Margaret does not come across well, because the majority of anecdotes are from people who encountered her at parties and grumbled about her haughty behavior. There are also some odd fictional passages that imagine what might have been.
But I also came away very angry on Margaret's behalf because of the way she was taken advantage of by the men in her life. Group Captain Peter Townsend was a married man in the employ of her father. He had no business getting romantically involved with Margaret. In hindsight, she was …
This is not your standard biography, but more like an examination of Margaret's life from written recollections of people who encountered her. And I would emphasize "encounter" rather than "knew" because the author shares glimpses of Margaret from the memoirs of her former lover, Peter Townsend, to a brief meeting with Supremes singer Mary Wilson at the Royal Variety Performance.
Margaret does not come across well, because the majority of anecdotes are from people who encountered her at parties and grumbled about her haughty behavior. There are also some odd fictional passages that imagine what might have been.
But I also came away very angry on Margaret's behalf because of the way she was taken advantage of by the men in her life. Group Captain Peter Townsend was a married man in the employ of her father. He had no business getting romantically involved with Margaret. In hindsight, she was really in a vulnerable position, having lost her beloved father and also losing the guidance of her governess, Marion Crawford. (It's not mentioned in the book, but Margaret also lost her nanny, Clara Knight, around the same time period. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's nursery maid
remained in her life, serving as her dresser and close confidant until her death in 1993.) It's understandable that she turned to Townsend for comfort and support, but it was irresponsible of him to let it get that far. And in this day and age, most of us wouldn't call it a great romance when an older man get involved with a teenage girl. I couldn't help wondering what would have happened if King George VI hadn't died prematurely. Would he have run Townsend out of the country for taking advantage of his daughter?
What made me even angrier was reading about how Tony Armstrong-Jones gaslighted Margaret as he became tired of marriage. And all the while, he charmed the Queen and the Queen Mother so that they sided with him over Margaret. He even managed to manipulate press attention to make Margaret look like the cause of the marriage's failure, even as he cheated on her. Again, I couldn't help wondering what might have been if Margaret's father had been alive to look out for her.
Overall, it good to see a different take on a woman who was loved being in the spotlight, but lived in the shadow of her sister due to being second-born.