Gilded Youth: A History of Growing Up in the Royal Family: From the Tudors to the Cambridges

Biographer Quinn (Kensington Palace) contends in this fleet-footed if familiar history that the child-rearing practices of Buckingham Palace have “hardly changed in centuries.” Opening in medieval times when wet nurses were the norm, childhood was brief, and nobles were used as “political pawns” through marriage or betrothal, Quinn makes the case that modern royals have endured “dysfunctional parenting” due to “fierce resistance” to change that has produced generations of troubled adults. Much of the book is devoted to the upbringing of the late Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, who benefited somewhat from being female and out of the line of succession until their father unexpectedly took the throne after his brother’s 1936 abdication. The sisters were coddled by their “primary caregiver,” nursemaid Margaret “Bobo” McDonald, and were only in the company of their parents one hour per day—a tradition they continued with their own children. The failed union of Elizabeth’s son Charles and Princess Diana, described as “the last gasp of an ancient system in arranged marriages,” has been eclipsed by their sons, who made love matches with commoners and aspire to be “hands-on” fathers. Incisive character sketches and a dollop of below-stairs gossip add entertainment to this thoughtful, well-documented study. Royal watchers, take note. (Dec.)