Reviewed: The Royal Family Versus The Crown

If you are a fan of the Netflix series ‘The Crown‘ then there is no doubt that, at some point you will have said, ‘I wonder if that really happened?’ If that is the case, then acclaimed historical writer Catherine Curzon has written the book for you. ‘The Royal Family Versus The Crown‘, which hit the bookshops on Thursday, is a brilliant, almost encyclopedic tome which looks at every single episode of The Crown from the 6 series, and ask the questions ‘Did this really happen?’, ‘Did it happen in exactly the way that it is portrayed?’, and ‘Did it even happen at the time that is stated.’ The answers are illuminating and very entertaining.

Catherine Curzon is a brilliant historical writer, (as well as running one of my fave things on X, ‘Frocking Fabulous’). She clearly knows her stuff when it comes to the British Royal Family, and can certainly pick out ‘fake news’ from true facts. The reality of ‘The Crown’ as Catherine ably shows, is that so much is not based on reality at all. Many dates have been changed, stories have been exaggerated, and some characters are not even real, for instance Venetia Scott, the secretary to Winstone Churchill, whose tragic death after she was hit by a bus during the Smog was so important to the clean air act, was a figment of The Crown’s imagination and not based on a real person. Other characters have been changed beyond recognition, for instance Tommy Lascelles is often portrayed as a Machiavellian figure, far removed from the memories of those who actually knew him.

Where Catherine also gets cross, and fully gets my support, is that, despite the series being based on the reign of our longest ruling monarch Queen Elizabeth ll, the writers often turn this from ‘herstory’ to very much ‘history’. She cites examples including the heavy storylines dedicated to Prince Phillip, how The Queen Mother was often sidelined, and how Peter Townsend is given a voice that should belong to Princess Margaret during their affair, and particularly at its end.

‘The Royal Family Versus The Crown’ is a highly entertaining, great read that is a total companion piece to the series. Go and rewatch from series 1, and keep this by your side so you can finally answer all those fact from fiction questions.

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