Why kings and queens rule British hearts

gzlaser

PRINCE Charles' staff prepare him eight boiled eggs after a day's hunting, just to make sure he can find one of an acceptable hardness.

This is just one of many interesting revelations and anecdotes with which British writer and renowned broadcast journalist, Jeremy Paxman peppers his account of the royal dynasties of Britain and Europe.

Royalty eternally fascinates the British people, the topic has been treated before, so why do we need Paxman's effort? What does he have to say hat is different? Paxman attempts with the book \"to understand how the kings and queens of Britain and the monarchies of Europe have come to exercise the hold they have upon our imaginations.\"

He does so first by listing the requirements of kingship. This is perhaps the most interesting part of the book. It's both historically informative and wittily recounted. A throne is, of course, essential, and some are more easily attained than others. The throne of England was bloodily fought over in centuries past, yet the position of king of Albania was advertised in 1914 with the simple words: \"Fair land wants its prince.\"

One insight provided by this historical analysis is that even an unpopular king will be forgiven if he fulfills his primary duty of providing an heir. Prince Charles receives lots of criticism for speaking his mind on issues such as architecture and genetics. But he is safe in the knowledge he has already done the deed: Wills and Harry are waiting in the wings.

Tracing the history of the British monarchy also allows Paxman to delve into the erosion of its power. He describes the present Queen, Elizabeth II, as \"a powerless creature\". And the latter half of the book is filled with possible reasons to justify why the British persist with such an outdated and undemocratic institution.

Throughout the two world wars, the royal family was seen as an ideal family. As head of the British Empire, the monarch provided a figurehead for soldiers to fight for. So why, Paxman asks, with the Empire dissolved and Prince Charles' marriage to Princess Diana exposed as a sham, does the royal family survive?

His somewhat lackluster conclusion is that it is simply not worth the trouble to remove it. However, this is too easy an escape from his original question of why the royals are so close to British hearts. He does note that because so many of their recent marriages ended in failure, people may feel closer to them. After all, this can reflect on many of their own experiences. He also nods towards the notion of royalty as a constant symbol of Britishness in a land struggling to retain its national identity.

These ideas are worth pursuing in more details, and if his true purpose were to answer his original question, he would surely have focused on asking the people themselves. Instead, in true journalistic style, his opening chapter – an account of his stay with Prince Charles at Sandringham – is what he considers most important to the reader: an inside look at the lives of royalty.

Yet one must ask how successfully this book achieves even this goal. Nowhere in its 288 pages does Paxman actually speak to the Queen herself.