It’s no big mystery: James Middleton’s pseudo-memoir is being treated gently by the British media simply because it is pro-royal propaganda. I would even call it a fantasy version, half-fictional, of the Middleton family and the Windsors. James is not being accused of being tacky or classless or “selling out” either family… because they like what he wrote. Sort of. I can imagine that the Windsors are not happy, but then again, some deal was struck with the Middletons this year and the Windsors are clearly participating in the rehabilitation of the Middletons. The Telegraph recently covered James’s book and what James reveals about how the Middletons are “quietly influencing the future of the monarchy.” Some highlights:
It’s not Spare: “This may be a memoir starring members of the Royal family, written by a younger brother and focusing on the life-changing importance of a wife who has grown up outside royal circles. But Spare it is not. [The book] paints the picture of a warm, close-knit family whose members are imperfect but do their best.
How the Middletons are shaping the monarchy: And with it, inadvertently, it reveals first-hand for the first time how they are quietly, in some ways, influencing the future of the British monarchy. Their role in shaping the future King George and indeed King William has been transformative, balancing the formalities of the palace life of duty and service with cards at the kitchen table, hugs, and more hugs.
Ingrid Seward on the Middletons: “They took him [Prince William] under their wing from the very beginning and provided the kind of family atmosphere he had never had and probably yearned for,” says Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine. “Lots of laughs, lots of family games and sharing of outdoor pursuits as a family. Just being there for him when his own father was far too busy and unable to provide this. This has made him very ‘family conscious’ which was exactly what King Charles wanted for him as he never had it himself.”
The Middletons can influence the Wales kids: The Middletons cannot trump the monarchy, but they have certainly had some influence on how its next generation will grow up. “The royal side will always come out on top however influential your family is or has been,” says Seward. “William is very family-minded because of this but he can’t beat the system.”
James thought of QEII as his granny-surrogate? Later on in the book, the late Queen is shown as a kind host, deftly playing jigsaws with a nervous James and giving him socks for Christmas, somehow “filling a granny-sized void in my life”.
James’s sisters fussed over him: His pride in his sisters’ achievements is palpable, even as they overshadowed his own – “Middleton Minor” – at school. “They would fuss over me like mother hens,” he said, even when he stayed with them in London during the noughties, and they were less than thrilled to have their “little brother disrupting their orderly, tidy existence”.
William & Kate lean on the Middletons: If the future of the monarchy rests on the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, this memoir suggests, they rest in turn on the Middletons.
A commenter suggested that James’s book was written in concert with Carole Middleton and I have been thinking about that ever since. It seems very possible. Even if Carole didn’t coauthor it, I’m sure she edited it and “improved” on some of the stories. That’s the thing though – Carole and Michael come out of it smelling like roses, and there’s no mention of Carole’s schemes and machinations in business or courtship. This is part of Carole’s rehabilitation and a rewrite on the past twenty years of her life. Will King Charles and Camilla just let this stand? Or will the Middletons get some pushback from the palace, even if the “royal stories” are somewhat complimentary?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.