What I Read: Windsor Edition

If you’re following my IG Stories, you’ll know that I have been thrifting a ton of books lately. I sometimes go through phases in terms of the focus of my thrifting, and I am now in an accessories-and-books phase. It probably has to do with the fact that I’m much more picky about my clothes that I used to be; books, on the other hand? You can never have too many!

When I was growing up, back in the Old Country, my grandparents lived in an apartment on a floor of a house which had once belonged to a famous writer or some other well-off member of the bourgeoisie. Compared to the Communist apartment block where I lived with my parents, this place might as well have been Versailles. It even had what, at one time, had been a servants’ stairs/entrance separate from the main one; after the house had been chopped up into smaller apartments, the latter was essentially closed up, and everyone used the former – which, come to think of it, was a kind of metaphor for communism. Anyway, in my eyes, my grandparents’ apartment was everything I wanted to have/be when I grew up. One of the things it had was a small home library; a couple of large, floor-to-ceiling bookcases, jam-packed with all sorts of books – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays. As an only child (and grandchild), I spent much of my time reading through that entire library, even though most of it was probably too “adult” for my age, and those are some of my best childhood memories. All of which is to say – I have always wanted my own home library, and to be able to give my kids access to the same experiences I had. It’s too long of an explanation to give every time someone asks me why I don’t just get ebooks (or visit the public library), but I figured this was as good a place as any to write it all out.

Moving on, I have been on a House of Windsor kick lately, and it’s got nothing to do with the Prince Harry-Meghan Markle wedding. Nothing against those two; I wish them all the best, but I’m not as invested in the hoopla as tabloids and the media seem to think I ought to be. I caught a documentary about the Royal family on Netflix a while ago, and it made me want to read up on the post-Victoria era. Previously, I had read biographies of Edward VII, Elizabeth II, Lord Snowdon, and the Duchess of Windsor. Thanks to Goodwill, I got my hands on a biography of George VII by Sarah Bradford, as well as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother by Ingrid Seward.

Both are very good, though different in tone/approach. Bradford’s book is a very typical biography – well researched and written, not too scholarly in tone, but also not very gossipy. It is, perhaps not surprisingly, sympathetic to Bertie/George. Some historians seem to take the view that he wasn’t very promising king material, or a particularly strong or inspiring monarch, while others take the view that he did as well as anyone could have expected, given the difficult circumstances that were largely thrust upon him. This books falls in the second camp.

The Last Edwardian Lady was written while the Queen Mother was still alive, and it’s not a traditional biography. Narrated in a non-linear fashion, it focuses on various key periods of Elizabeth’s life; the tone is light and gossipy, but in a respectful way – not unlike that of, say, Hello magazine. The most scandalous detail might be that she enjoyed a strong tipple every day, which I feel is the sort of thing that was always part of her public persona as the Queen Mother – fun, jolly, no-nonsense. She was those things, but also more – the proverbial iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. Contrary to the public perception from her latter years, she had been a very popular, much sought after, debutante; I thought this was interesting given the fact that she and Wallis Simpson are often juxtaposed as different archetypes – in truth, Elizabeth had a bit of the femme fatale in her as well.

Leaving aside the Windsors, I also read Spinster by Katie Bolick. It’s a somewhat difficult book to describe, but I would say that it’s about Bolick’s decision not to marry (and the women who influenced her in making that choice) and the place and role of spinsters in our society. While I have obviously made a different choice in my own life, I found the book very interesting – I can certainly understand why someone would choose differently, and Bolick’s writing is very enjoyable regardless. Her “influencers” include Edna St. Vincent Millay, with whom I was similarly obsessed in my 20s, and Edith Wharton, who is one of my favourite authors, along with other women who were not familiar names for me, but whom I am happy to have discovered through this book. I am not sure if this classifies as a “feminist” book necessarily, but I would definitely recommend it if you are interested in reading about strong women who did not comply with society’s expectations. FWIW, I recently saw it on sale at Chapters for $8.

And that concludes another round-up of my recent reads. Your turn: tell me what you’ve been reading lately.