I would not have normally purchased any book about the "Royal" family, yet I purchased this because I had watched the events of His Majesty the King, as they were televised since the death of his mother HM the Queen. While I had grown up with the Queen, she was more of my parent's generation not mine and the King was more of my generation.
The book is at times, quite "heavy going" with the amount of detail that it goes into, which might put some people off. I wasn't really interested in the HM the Queen's coronation as it took place 2 years and 3 months before I was born. However, reading through it, I was surprised about some of the things I learnt of which the most surprising of all was about Winston Churchill ! Having had time to reflect I understand why the Queen's Coronation was included as the author clearly wanted to show the differences between the Queen's and the King's and how different, but similar they were.
It is clear that Mr Hardman had access to many people while writing this book as he quotes them in their own words, which means he was trusted and is trustworthy.
There is a lot of "myth busting" and "corrections" in the book which I found particularly interesting as it really did show what we think and what we are led to believe might not and probably don't have any foundation in fact.
Reading through the book, I found myself with a greater understanding of Queen Camilla and have done a 100⁒ reverse turn on my views on her and her relationship with the King, which were mostly formed by what I thought was true as the only real knowledge of her that I had was through "media". Rather than the "wicked witch of the west" the Queen is shown to be a loving wife and support to the King, his "rock" and his best friend. There is so much more than I have the space to write here to discover in the book, so it is worth getting just for this.
As for the King, this book reminds us of the many, many things that he has done during his life-time. I was surprised by how many things he has done and continues to do now he is King. The picture that comes through is of human, not just a royal and that I was most pleased about.
In summery
I really enjoyed this book, more so when the focus was on the King and Queen, but even those parts that are"boring" aren't really that boring to stop you from wanting to carry on reading the book all the way through. Would I recommend it to others to read? I have no hesitation in giving the answer to this question as yes, I would.
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