As an American, I find the idea of bowing (or curtseying) to someone abhorrent. And yet, after reading Tina Brown's revealing book about the House of Windsor, I bow to her. "The Palace Papers" is entertaining and illuminating, but not tawdry, even as she deals with all kinds of tawdry actions.
Its theme could be "so many unfulfilled people." A monarch must produce an heir and a spare, but the life of that spare consists of lending royal sparkle to dreary events and waiting for something to happen to the heir. No wonder so many of them implode.
(Except for sturdy Princess Anne, who comes home in her ballgown, pulls on her wellies and goes out to feed the hens.)
