Last year, Omid Scobie sent me an advance copy of his novel, Royal Spin. I read it quickly and enjoyed it. It’s not a royal exposé nor is it about the Duchess of Sussex or the Windsors whatsoever. Scobie stopped being a “royal reporter” after his previous book, Endgame, came out in 2023. If you read Endgame, you know that Scobie was in bridge-burning mode and he decided to get out of the royal-reporter game. That hasn’t stopped the British media from continuously mocking him as “Meghan’s mouthpiece” and “the Sussexes’ unofficial spokesperson.” They’re still furious that Scobie collected his money, moved to California and has no need for the sycophantic, bootlicking royalist grind.
Well, Royal Spin comes out this week, and the book is already being adapted and developed as a TV show (Scobie scored a seven-figure payday for the rights). As I read the book, I thought about how it would make a good show as well – it’s not sugary, and it treats the palace courtiers as regular people just trying to do a ridiculous job. The lead character, an American PR expert, is a flawed heroine and a fish out of water at the palace. The absurdity of the situation is often the story, although there are some wry hits on lazy royals and racist courtiers.
Currently, the British media is gleefully trying to take down Omid and his novel. They’re trying to review-bomb it like they’ve done with everything the Duke and Duchess of Sussex touch. After so many years, their whole act is so stupid and unnecessary. Jan Moir devoted her Daily Mail column to the book and how it’s obviously all about Meghan (it is not). The Telegraph gave it one star and the review is called “Meghan’s confidant has written a novel so bad, AI would disown it.” The Telegraph claims the whole book is slop and schmaltz and that story is obvious, but that’s not true – the lead character doesn’t have an expected path, and she does a few very unusual things within the story. I thought it was going to be much more about how the royals function and a fictionalized version of what it’s like to work with royals, but the machinery of the novel is more “how the royal sausage is made through endless meetings and incremental change.”
Anyway, I would recommend Royal Spin if you’re looking for a breezy, uncomplicated read about a familiar subject matter. It’s not about exposing the Windsors. He already did that with Endgame.
Photos courtesy of Omid Scobie’s Instagram.
