For more than 300 years, Kensington Palace has played host to a colourful cast of kings, queens and assorted aristocratic hangers-on. A stone's throw from the bustling streets of central London, this grand building has served as the stage for some of the most dramatic and bizarre events in the history of the royal family. It was here that the young Queen Victoria was held a virtual prisoner for eighteen years; and it was here that George II installed both his wife and his mistress, giving the latter rooms so damp that there were said to be mushrooms growing on the walls. More recently, the palace has witnessed an extraordinary series of scandals, from Princess Diana's bombshell TV interview with a journalist smuggled into the palace disguised as a salesman, to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's shock departure – first for Frogmore Cottage, and then for America – amid rumours of a rift with William and Kate. With exclusive interviews with palace staff past and present, fascinating historical details and a fully updated postscript considering what life after Kensington holds for Harry and Meghan, Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir from Queen Mary to Meghan Markle offers a rare behind-the-scenes insight into one of Britain's most iconic residences.

トム・クインが描くのは、宮殿という壮麗な建築物が内包する血の通った孤独です。若きヴィクトリア女王の幽閉から現代の王室離脱まで、本書は三百年もの歴史を貫き、権力の象徴がいかに個人の感情を摩耗させる装置であったかを暴き出します。それは単なる記録を超えた、極めて文学的な人間解剖の書といえるでしょう。 関係者の肉声を拾い上げる筆致は、華やかな表舞台の裏にある湿り気を帯びた葛藤を浮き彫りにします。伝統という名の檻の中で人間がいかに愛し、苦悩したか。歴史の断片が現代の痛みと共鳴する瞬間、読者はこの邸宅に隠された真の情念を目撃するはずです。