Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors. by Tom Bower

[Grownup_Rafbrat]

All, in a break from usual protocols, I have decided to open a single thread here for reviews of this book, which many are reading as I write (@shopgirl, @naffnickname and me, for just three). Please put your reviews, observations and interesting chat related to this book in this thread. It will save cluttering up the Book Club, and provide an interesting reference point for other arrsers and the Harry that used to be Prince, should he come browsing.

Thank you,
The Book Lady

 

[shopgirl]

All, in a break from usual protocols, I have decided to open a single thread here for reviews of this book, which many are reading as I write (@shopgirl, @naffnickname and me, for just three). Please put your reviews, observations and interesting chat related to this book in this thread. It will save cluttering up the Book Club, and provide an interesting reference point for other arrsers and the Harry that used to be Prince, should he come browsing.

Thank you,
The Book Lady

Will do

 

[Grownup_Rafbrat]

Will do

Thank you, my lovely.

 

[Grownup_Rafbrat]

Morning all. So far I am impressed with this volume. The chapters are laid out in a sequence, and are named
Thomas
School
College
Suits
Manhunt
Influencer
The Irishman
Hillary
Watershed
Rwanda
Reitmans - Take Two
Limbo

all about Meghan and her family, going back to grandparents. Like many modern families, it's complicated, but she does seem to have had the best of the deal and had an upbringing that I and many here would envy. She was loved by both parents, and rarely did anyone ever deny her what she wanted.

Of course her own version of this is different. For example her Friday after school treat of being taken to film sets by her father is portrayed as being made to be there after school every day.

The next two chapters, A Troubled Prince and The Catch, give an insight into Harry's upbringing, including the questions over his father. As @CrashTestDummy has requested no spoilers, I'll say that I learnt several things here, but can confirm that rumours about James Hewitt being The Daddy are indeed untrue.

Following Chapters
Exposed
Hiccups
Vanity Fair
Spotlight
Engagement
Aggravation
Tears

have been very informative about how the secret was leaked by Meghan and her people whilst still being embargoed by the Royal Family, how quickly she started to milk her 'soon to be Royal' status to publicise her political ambitions, and the start of the breakdown in relationships with the Duchess of Cambridge and other Royals.

Chapters to come
Humiliation
Wedding
Tremors
Suicide
Exposure
Baby Shower
wellness
Pitching
Vogue
Attack
Transit
Farewell
Paradise
The Trial
The Jigsaw
Netflix
The Interview
Backlash
Grandstanding
Victory
Revenge
Full-out


Remain to be read in quiet moments today, the chapter titles already causing wry smiles here.

Suffice to say that Bower holds nothing back about Meghans's now-known behaviour to those who can help her, those she considers should be her minions, and those of whom she is jealous.

It's written in an easy style, quick to read. Yet some pages I have to read twice because I just can't believe this stuff happened. For example her desire to be a UN Ambassador and how that panned out. Her trip to Rwanda where she took numerous outfits and did a long fashion shoot, spending a tiny amount of time with the poor children she was supposedly there to support, and then being photographed in many outfits whilst talking to them.

I cannot, from what is written here, believe that any self-respecting man would ever become involved with this woman. And that includes the previous husbands/long term boyfriends. The Irishman had a very lucky escape!

No more for now, back to the reading.....

 

[Auld-Yin]

Sounds like a fascinating book...that I am going to thoroughly ignore!

 

[Nemesis44UK]

Morning all. So far I am impressed with this volume. The chapters are laid out in a sequence, and are named
Thomas
School
College
Suits
Manhunt
Influencer
The Irishman
Hillary
Watershed
Rwanda
Reitmans - Take Two
Limbo

all about Meghan and her family, going back to grandparents. Like many modern families, it's complicated, but she does seem to have had the best of the deal and had an upbringing that I and many here would envy. She was loved by both parents, and rarely did anyone ever deny her what she wanted.

Of course her own version of this is different. For example her Friday after school treat of being taken to film sets by her father is portrayed as being made to be there after school every day.

The next two chapters, A Troubled Prince and The Catch, give an insight into Harry's upbringing, including the questions over his father. As @CrashTestDummy has requested no spoilers, I'll say that I learnt several things here, but can confirm that rumours about James Hewitt being The Daddy are indeed untrue.

Following Chapters
Exposed
Hiccups
Vanity Fair
Spotlight
Engagement
Aggravation
Tears

have been very informative about how the secret was leaked by Meghan and her people whilst still being embargoed by the Royal Family, how quickly she started to milk her 'soon to be Royal' status to publicise her political ambitions, and the start of the breakdown in relationships with the Duchess of Cambridge and other Royals.

Chapters to come
Humiliation
Wedding
Tremors
Suicide
Exposure
Baby Shower
wellness
Pitching
Vogue
Attack
Transit
Farewell
Paradise
The Trial
The Jigsaw
Netflix
The Interview
Backlash
Grandstanding
Victory
Revenge
Full-out


Remain to be read in quiet moments today, the chapter titles already causing wry smiles here.

Suffice to say that Bower holds nothing back about Meghans's now-known behaviour to those who can help her, those she considers should be her minions, and those of whom she is jealous.

It's written in an easy style, quick to read. Yet some pages I have to read twice because I just can't believe this stuff happened. For example her desire to be a UN Ambassador and how that panned out. Her trip to Rwanda where she took numerous outfits and did a long fashion shoot, spending a tiny amount of time with the poor children she was supposedly there to support, and then being photographed in many outfits whilst talking to them.

I cannot, from what is written here, believe that any self-respecting man would ever become involved with this woman. And that includes the previous husbands/long term boyfriends. The Irishman had a very lucky escape!

No more for now, back to the reading.....

I'm not really a Royal watcher as such but this book appears to be sensational. It's an overused term, but it seems to be very damning to the self-proclaimed Queen of Hearts.

 

[Tuffty]

I am as bored of these two as i am of COVID, Boris, The Heat Wave, Next PM, Migrants, LGBT, BLM, BBC (tossers), ECO Twats, Dover delays, Passports, cost of Petrol/Diesel, Fikin Lurpak (go to ALDI),
Feel free to add

 

[Grownup_Rafbrat]

Morning all. So far I am impressed with this volume. The chapters are laid out in a sequence, and are named
Thomas
School
College
Suits
Manhunt
Influencer
The Irishman
Hillary
Watershed
Rwanda
Reitmans - Take Two
Limbo

all about Meghan and her family, going back to grandparents. Like many modern families, it's complicated, but she does seem to have had the best of the deal and had an upbringing that I and many here would envy. She was loved by both parents, and rarely did anyone ever deny her what she wanted.

Of course her own version of this is different. For example her Friday after school treat of being taken to film sets by her father is portrayed as being made to be there after school every day.

The next two chapters, A Troubled Prince and The Catch, give an insight into Harry's upbringing, including the questions over his father. As @CrashTestDummy has requested no spoilers, I'll say that I learnt several things here, but can confirm that rumours about James Hewitt being The Daddy are indeed untrue.

Following Chapters
Exposed
Hiccups
Vanity Fair
Spotlight
Engagement
Aggravation
Tears

have been very informative about how the secret was leaked by Meghan and her people whilst still being embargoed by the Royal Family, how quickly she started to milk her 'soon to be Royal' status to publicise her political ambitions, and the start of the breakdown in relationships with the Duchess of Cambridge and other Royals.

Chapters to come
Humiliation
Wedding
Tremors
Suicide
Exposure
Baby Shower
wellness
Pitching
Vogue
Attack
Transit
Farewell
Paradise
The Trial
The Jigsaw
Netflix
The Interview
Backlash
Grandstanding
Victory
Revenge
Full-out


Remain to be read in quiet moments today, the chapter titles already causing wry smiles here.

Suffice to say that Bower holds nothing back about Meghans's now-known behaviour to those who can help her, those she considers should be her minions, and those of whom she is jealous.

It's written in an easy style, quick to read. Yet some pages I have to read twice because I just can't believe this stuff happened. For example her desire to be a UN Ambassador and how that panned out. Her trip to Rwanda where she took numerous outfits and did a long fashion shoot, spending a tiny amount of time with the poor children she was supposedly there to support, and then being photographed in many outfits whilst talking to them.

I cannot, from what is written here, believe that any self-respecting man would ever become involved with this woman. And that includes the previous husbands/long term boyfriends. The Irishman had a very lucky escape!

No more for now, back to the reading.....

I have now completed the book, and recovered from the shock at how someone could treat both their families so badly. It seems that from an early stage Harry was involved in the nastiness towards Thomas Markle, and imho the way they behaved could have contributed to the heart attack he suffered just before the wedding. At no time did either of them bother to enquire after his health during this time, even when he was in hospital. My view that Harry was an innocent, trapped by a schemer, has changed. I now think that two people with nasty aspects to their characters are bringing out the worst in each other.

My copy of the book has around twenty markers for return visit when writing this review. That might be considered spoilers... However I cannot understand what the UK Court system was doing when it processed Meghan's case against the Daily Mail. Even on appeal, the evidence that she had lied, lied and lied again was presented but ignored by judges. I can't work out whether the judiciary is anti Monarchy, was frightened of being labelled racist, was incompetent, or was playing a long game whose outcome is yet to be seen by the rest of us.

I feel desperately sorry for Her Majesty the Queen and the UK-based members of the Royal Family. Even George, Charlotte and the youngsters must be able to read some of the poison being launched by their Uncle and Aunt. No doubt the Monarchy will survive, but in what form and with what reputation, I can't see. Mr. Bower thinks that the war has years to go yet, and this will, in the end, do nobody any good, particularly Harry, Meghan and the invisible children. (@naffnickname there's no mention of the issued photos of those children being actually of other children.)

The book left me feeling depressed that this pair of twisted individuals can be so cruel, so ungrateful and so downright spiteful to those who were willing to give them everything. I agree with the author that if they weren't trying to make the transition from Elizabeth II to her eldest son difficult, that's certainly what they have achieved.

If the stories about the big fight between them in New York this week are true, I can only wish that they turn their nastiness publicly on each other, to the detriment of nobody but themselves. And that the iffspring don't actually exist, and can't be harmed by it, like Harry and Diana were by the divorces of their parents. It's not only the underclasses where social issues are handed down from generation to generation, it seems.

The book deserves four stars for the amount of research undertaken, the number of sources approached, documents read and the nice way it is arranged chronologically. It would have been five, but it's left me with a sense of depression about how one nasty little scrubber* and a spoilt hooray Henry can go so far towards bringing down a thousand-year-old institution.

Description my own opinion, not arrse's or Bower's.

 

[shopgirl]

I haven't forgotten I will be starting tomorrow morning.

 

[Grownup_Rafbrat]

I haven't forgotten I will be starting tomorrow morning.

F1 took priority over the weekend

 

[Garminalpha84]

Apparently Will and Kate get a kicking in this book too.

 

[shopgirl]

F1 took priority over the weekend

Yes and 2 welcome visits from my older niece and nephew, yesterday on their way to a wedding, and today on the way back

 

[Grownup_Rafbrat]

Apparently Will and Kate get a kicking in this book too.

Not a kicking, but the stuff put about by Team Meghan is analysed. Seems Kate only looks so lovely now because she changed Stylist to look less frumpy. That was a surprise! I thought she was always lovely.

Bowers presents both sides of the wedding dress tears story, and the floral aftermath, without deciding which version actually happened, and what motives pertained on either side.

Many witnesses spoke provided they were not named. I suspect others, such a dressmakers, were prevented by their employer.

There will be another volume, I am sure.

 

[RABC]

@Grownup_Rafbrat . Thanks for your precis. Is there any doubt in your mind that it is all true, or just one version of events ?

 

[Grownup_Rafbrat]

@Grownup_Rafbrat . Thanks for your precis. Is there any doubt in your mind that it is all true, or just one version of events ?

Both sides of the later chapters are presented, eg the Kate stuff mentioned above. Lots of stuff @naffnickname has found isn't mentioned at all. Like the child pictures released being of other people's children.

Despite his obvious dislike of Meghan's approach to life, treatment of people, and vivid imagination, I think it's even-handed. He quotes sources for all his stories. If they were lying, his researchers would have found out, I think.

 

[RABC]

Thank you. I wonder what the response will be from the demonic duo

 

[Grownup_Rafbrat]

Thank you. I wonder what the response will be from the demonic duo

Press today seems to be full of Harry going to go full Tonto on Camilla in his book, which will be timed to maximise embarrassment for Her Majesy and her heirs. He still hasn't forgiven her for breaking up St. Diana of the Perpetual Shagging's happy marriage.


Forgiveness is a one way street, apparently.

 

[aardvaark the carpeted]

Does the author explain why any of us should care about them one way or the other? If the Institution is so weak then let it fall.

 

[Aphra]

@Grownup_Rafbrat . Thanks for your precis. Is there any doubt in your mind that it is all true, or just one version of events ?

I think it's always helpful to look at previous behaviour as an indicator. Meghan and Harry have been very keen to address anything they claim to be untrue and are keeping a raft of lawyers busy pursuing suits against those they claim have defamed them.

Two of Bower's previous subjects have sued him and lost, leading to his reputation for meticulous research. I'd be inclined to accept that what has made it into his book will be true, on the basis that he stands to lose not only money but his reputation if Meghan and Harry can prove that anything he's published is untrue. Further, publishers may relish 'warts and all' biographies of living subjects but they are generally risk-averse and I'd bet their own fact-checkers will have done a rigourous job prior to publication.

Let's see if Harry and Meghan sue.

 

[Maalox]

For Harry to violate "Blood is thicker than water" and "Don't show the dirty family washing in public" so strongly, is indicative that he is not of House of Windsor stock from his father's side.

His gingery soul may be of House of Stuart stock from his mother's side, reincarnated/gilguled sent down to extract some kind of karmic revenge on the Germanics in the Grand Scheme of Things.