Book news: Some royal books expected this spring

While autumn is the time of the year when most books are published this spring and early summer also seem to hold some interesting expectations.
Already out in Sweden is Göran Burén’s book Mordet på Folke Bernadotte, published by Leopard förlag, which, as the title suggests, looks at the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte af Wisborg, the son of Prince Oscar Bernadotte, while acting as UN negotiator in Jerusalem in 1948.
Kerstin Nohrenius, the biographer of French Prince Eugène, Viceroy of Italy and later Duke of Leuchtenberg, and Lars Wiklund have now written a book on his wife and children, focusing on the eldest, who became Queen of Sweden and of Norway. The book, titled Glädje och sorg i en drottnings liv, has 30 March as its publication date, but apparently it is nevertheless not yet for sale.
Another Bernadotte Queen who continues to fascinate is Victoria, the consort of Gustaf V. She is the subject of Anders Jarlert’s new book Drottning Victoria – Ur ett inre liv – En existensiell biografi, which seems to promise insight into Queen Victoria’s inner life. Like Nohrenius’s and Wiklund’s book it will be published by Carlssons bokförlag.

Also out already is Lena Rangström’s book on royal births and christenings, titled Kanonsalut och vaggor – Kungliga födslar och dop. Another book on the same subject, but apparently dealing with a shorter span of time, Kungliga barn by Elisabeth Tarras-Wahlberg, will be published in June.
Here in Norway we can look forward to Kongens hus – Alle kongeparets hjem, which will be published by Orfeus Publishing on 8 May.

This book, written by Ole Rikard Høisæther, Thomas Thiis-Evensen and the Queen herself, will present all the residences of the King and Queen. A book of the same title was published in 1995, but very much has happened to the residences since then (for instance the major restoration of the Royal Palace, to mention only the most obvious), so this is an entirely new book on the same subject.
The British book market has much to offer this spring, including a major work on Queen Elizabeth II’s diamonds by Hugh Roberts. The Queen’s Diamonds, published by the Royal Collection, is expected to be published in mid-May ahead of a major exhibition on the same subject during this year’s summer opening of Buckingham Palace. As usual a smaller book aimed at the general audience will also be published in connection with the exhibition: Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration, by Caroline de Guitaut.
The historian Kate Williams will, as previously mentioned, emerge with Young Elizabeth: The Making of Our Queen, expected in May, while her Mistress of Empires: The Extraordinary Life of Josephine Bonaparte, which was also due this year, has been postponed to October 2013.

The journalist Peter Conradi’s very interesting book on the current monarchies of Europe, which has already been published in France, Sweden and the Netherlands, will finally also appear in the author’s homeland. The Great Survivors: How Monarchy Made It into the Twenty-First Century will be published by Alma Books on 2 June.
In the less serious end of the spectre we can expect Lady Colin Campbell’s biography of the late Queen Mother of Britain, The Untold Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, which is due to be published on 26 April and has already caused some headlines by its sensational claims that the Queen Mother and her younger brother were not actually the children of their official parents. It will surely be interesting to see what reasons (if any) she gives for Lord and Lady Strathmore employing surrogate parents in order to have a ninth and tenth child...