Where’s Tina Brown in all of this?
As the world melts down over Middleton, here’s an excerpt from my Substack on three of my favorite reads by my favorite journalist.
For a better (and more comprehensive) reading experience, read the full post here.
THE VANITY FAIR DIARIES
In 1984, Tina Brown moved from London to New York to edit Vanity Fair - and there’s no need for me to go into details here, because she’s published her personal diaries from her time at the VF helm as a book - which, of course, you must read (reading rec #1, for those skimming). Under her tenure, she introduced the concept of “high-low” journalism; where serious political commentary sat comfortably aside a salaciously gossipy piece on a minor celeb. Because that type of journalism is so commonplace today, it’s hard to overstate how revolutionary this was - but you’ll get an idea if you read the book.
The Vanity Fair Diaries charts the 1980s mags publishing industry exactly as you’d imagine it: corporate cars, power lunches (including one with Diana, weeks before she died), cross-country flights, and torrid affairs (perhaps this is part of what we futilely attempt to recapture when we indulge in ‘corporate fetish’).
As a lifelong print magazine devotee with editorial aspirations, I devoured it. But even if you’re not interested in the publishing industry, and are simply looking for a brain break without wanting to sacrifice actual brain cells, give it a try. All the readability of an airport page-turner, polished with Oxonian prose. I’ll take it.
THE DIANA CHRONICLES
I received a copy of The Diana Chronicles (reading rec #3) in 2007, when Brown came to speak at a school assembly (her daughter attended the same school as I did, a few grades above), when I was far too young to appreciate her brilliance.
Once I’d finished the Vanity Fair Diaries, I vaguely remembered I still had a copy of The Diana Chronicles on my shelf (we’d all received them after the talk), dusted it off, and got started.
At 561 pages, it might look like a doorstop of a book, but it flies by. I took Melatonin every night while I read this book because I knew I’d stay up all night turning pages if I didn’t have something stopping me. Here’s why it worked for me.
There are three categories of typical royal biographers:
Professional sycophants. Obvious palace (+ now, Harry) mouthpieces, feeding us comms-approved language via “books” that might as well be press-releases.
Shock-jocks. Famously publish hatchet jobs in order to sell books and get press.
Respectable, earnest, hardworking non-British journalists throwing their hats into the royal reporting ring. Here’s the thing: not being British (and ‘posh’) is an issue here. The British upper class won’t trust someone who isn’t “one of them.” These journalists will never get a real scoop or a juicy palace source.
Brown, however, sits at an intersection. She is certainly not a sycophant (see: her earlier description of Charles); but she’s also not writing for shock value. She tells you about the time Diana pushed her nanny down the stairs (yes, that happened), but you know she’s telling the truth. Why? Because a lot of the people she writes are acquaintances of hers (this is where she transcends #3), thanks to her own social status and that of her late husband, Lord Harold Evans, a former editor of the UK Times, invested as a Knight by Queen Elizabeth in 2004. She’s gone on country weekends with Camilla Parker-Bowles - and been invited back, despite the fact that she seems to live by the famous Ephron maxim: everything is copy.
The book is packed with push-down-staircase level-wild anecdotes about Diana and offers up a comprehensive look at who she was as a person, not the sanitized narrative the media widely accepts, but, again, it’s not a hatchet job. If you’re interested in understanding the full picture, warts and all (and gathering some royal gossip) - this is an ideal beach read, I promise. Just maybe get it on Kindle…
THE PALACE PAPERS
Following the 2007 publication of The Diana Chronicles, there wasn’t a ton to say. The 2011 royal wedding, I guess, but it was hardly enough material to fill a book. Until 2016. When, of course, Meghan both entered the picture for what felt like the blink of an eye, until the dramatic Megxit. At that point, there was enough to fill multiple books.
So, in 2022, Brown published another book, The Palace Papers (reading rec #4), which picks up after Diana’s death and provides insight into and gossip on each “core” member of the royal family: we get chapters on Elizabeth + Philip, Charles + Camilla (apparently, Charles takes a velvet toilet seat with him on country weekend), Will + Kate (LOTS of goss here about how Carole Middleton helped to orchestrate Kate + Wills’ marriage, which is why I’d be shocked if she ever left him), Meghan + Harry, Andrew (and how he was shielded by his position as the queen’s ‘favorite’), and we even get some good insight into Edward (not the sharpest tool, Brown claims) + Anne (no-nonsense & hardworking, like her father, casting sensitive Charles’ shortcomings into even sharper relief for Philip). It’s another doorstopper (546 pages this time around), but again, it flies by.
ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY…I’m not sure where Kate Middleton is, but if you spend the next few weeks deep diving into Tina’s work, you’ll not only feel sharper for it, but you’ll also find a sufficiently juicy means of distraction until she emerges from wherever she’s hiding. Happy reading.