I looked forward to reading Andrew Lownie's Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House. I expected an explosion of scholarship and research. What I read, however, was a tiresome, sclerotic text with short, jerky chapters and no narrative. The book stumbles toward a conclusion without real scholarship.
Lownie should have hired a professional researcher or fact-checker, as this book has far too many mistakes, including stating that Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were bridesmaids at Prince Edward's wedding. Further down, I provide proof that they were merely guests at the wedding.
I expected better from someone who has a Ph.D in history. Given the subject matter, this book should be a scholarly tome with footnotes, endnotes, citations, and a bibliography. Andrew and Sarah have committed many sins, from gifting to alleged pedophilia, but their crimes and behavior deserve to be treated in a literate manner.
As a royal historian, I read nearly every royal biography published in the UK and the US. Some are good, some are great, and some are horrible. Entitled falls into the Horrible quality.
Why do I say this? Because the book lacks veracity. If you are going to provide evidence and facts about Andrew and Sarah's actions, especially in connection with Jeffrey Epstein, you should have footnotes, endnotes, and a bibliography of source material.
This edition has none of these things. I was an academic librarian specializing in reference and research, so imagine my horror when I learned that this book offers no source, Library of Congress Cataloging Data, or even an ISBN.
An excellent biography will remain on library shelves for decades. This book will end up in library book sale bins!
Lownie does not provide photo credits for the photographs, which, I must add, are of abysmal quality.
Entitled was published by Westminster Press in South Carolina. There is no website for this publisher. The cover photo is imprinted on the actual front of the book. No dust jacket.
Page 17: In the opening sentence, Lownie writes that Prince Philip and Sarah Ferguson's mother were lovers 20 years before their children, but provides no facts or citations to back it up. He also mentions Sarah's bridal attendants: Peter and Zara Phillips, Prince William. Sarah's half-brother, Andrew, and a nephew. The nephew has a name: Seamus Makim. He leaves out Lady Rosanagh Innes-Ker, daughter of the Duke of Roxburgh, Laura Fellowes, and Sarah's half-sister, Alice Ferguson.
Page 18: Lownie cites Sarah talking about the wedding breakfast. I assume he is quoting her, but he forgot the quotation marks and the source. Quotation marks are often missing in the text.
Page 25: Throughout the book, layout and spacing are also issues:
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Page 27: Lownie also repeats the bit about Philip's alleged affair (he does not use the word alleged)with Sarah's mother, Susan. The family home at the time was Lowood House in Ascot. Lownie claims King Zog of Albania lived in Lowood House. No, he didn't. His six sisters lived in Lowood House.
In 1941, after leaving the Ritz Hotel, King Zog, Queen Geraldine, and their young son moved into the Berystede Hotel at Sunninghill, then into a larger house, Forest Ridge. By the fall of 1941, they had leased Parmoor House in the Chiltern Hills.
Good sources include Neil Rees' A Royal Exile: King Zog and Queen Geraldine, Including Their Wartime Exile in the Thames Valley and Chilterns; Geraldine of the Albanians by Gwen Robyns; and Robert Prentice's article, "Queen Geraldine of Albania Settles in England."
In 1951, King Zog purchased the Knollwood Estate on Long Island. Lowood, Knollwood.
https://www.untappedcities.com/knollwood-estate-king-zog-ruins/
Page 32. Lownie writes that one of Andrew's "fellow pupils" at Gordonstoun was the Duke of Kent's daughter, Lady Helen Windsor. Andrew was born in 1960, which meant he is four years older than Lady Helen, who was born in 1964. She was about 16 when she entered Gordonstoun as one of 20 sixth-form girls. Andrew was 20 and no longer at the Scottish boarding school. It was Prince Edward, a month older than Lady Helen, who was her classmate!!
Page 53 Another example of missing quotes. I will not include all of the missing quotation marks.
Page 56: Koo Stark's first name was Kathleen. Not Katherine. Kathleen Norris Stark. She also did not have a small part in the National Theatre's production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in February 1982. She was an understudy. The production ran from July through December 1981.
There are four roles in Albee's play: Martha, George, Nick, and Honey. Koo would have been the understudy for Honey, who is described as 26. Here is the cast list:
https://catalogue.nationaltheatre.org.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Performance&id=490
Page 63: Lownie refers to a March 1984 Sun article, listing possible future wives for Andrew. Lownie mentions the 17-year-old daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch. Her name was Lady Charlotte-Anne Montagu-Douglas-Scott. She had turned 18 in January 1984. The twin daughters of Lady Glenconner were 13, not 14, when the article was published. Their 14th birthday was in November 1984.
Princess Stephanie was eighteen, not seventeen (February 1965). Henrietta Neville was the daughter of the 10th Lord Braybrook. She was born in 1965 and died at age 15 in 1980. I believe Lownie means Lady Henrietta Nevill, daughter of Lord Rupert Nevill. Following her brother's succession to the Marquessate of Abergavenny, Henrietta and her sister were raised to the status of Marquesses's daughter. Notice that Henrietta's surname does not end in e!
Page 64: This is one example with an asterisk in the middle of a page. However, there are at least a dozen dancing asterisks. Who was the copy editor? Was there a copy editor?
Page 75: Lownie describes People magazine as the sponsor of the charity gala performance of A Phantom of the Opera that Sarah attended in January 1988. I covered the event for a British magazine, and do not recall any connection to People magazine. In 1988, People was a part of the Time magazine group. The New York Times article does not cite People magazine as a sponsor. The Time magazine executives were unlikely to have provided airfare to a member of the British Royal family. However, if there is a citation I missed, I would love to see it.
Time magazine was one of the two best news magazines in the US, the other was Newsweek. Both publications had excellent news libraries with professional news librarians.
The three charities that benefited from the performance were the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center in Watertown, Conn., and the Royal College of Music and the Sick Children's Fund in Britain.
The New York Times article (January 22, 1988) did not refer to People's sponsorship. People's article was published on February 8 with one photo of Sarah. The article focuses more on her newly announced first pregnancy, with no mention of sponsorship of the gala performance.
The article is from my clip file on the Duchess of York. The Associated Press's coverage of the event and aftermath did not mention anything about People magazine. [At the time of this visit, I worked for AP in New York City.]
I also searched newspapers.com and Factiva for articles about this visit to New York. No People magazine references, but this quote in USA Today caught my eye.
Ivana Trump said: ``She was very sweet and bubbly. She thanked us for the use of our helicopter. She told us maybe when we're in London, we can use her helicopter.''
If there was a connection to People magazine, I would love to see a verified source.
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| @Marlene A Eilers Koenig |
Page 88: As Lownie has not included source material (citations, footnotes, endnotes, a bibliography), I have questions about certain statements, including Andrew's private secretary, Neil Blair, asking another naval officer to write Andrew's paper for a naval course. This does not surprise me, but credibility can be questioned if a source is not provided. Endnotes and footnotes are a serious writer's best friend.
Page 94: Hector Barrantes died in Argentina, not New York City. The first sentence is confusing. In February 1990. Sarah and her mother flew to New York, where Hector was undergoing treatment for cancer at a local hospital. She and her two young daughters flew to Argentina (not returning to NYC) at the end of July, staying for ten days with Susan and Hector, returning to London on August 9. Hector died the following day.
Lownie's text suggests that Sarah returned to New York in late July, when, in fact, she traveled to Hector's home in Argentina.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-12-mn-1053-story.html
Page 104: Lownie writes "taking Beatrice and Eugenie out of school" on April 9, 1992. Beatrice started at Upton Nursery School in September 1991. Eugenie did not join her until October 1992.
Page 108: Lownie states that before Sarah high-tailed out of Balmoral, she talked to Diana, "who was staying." Yes, Diana was at Balmoral, but this was the first reference to Diana in the chapter. I wondered why Lownie wrote "who was staying." Charles and Diana were separated as well, but there was no reason for Diana to take her leave because of Sarah's behavior.
Page 109: There is no Evening Standard 102 editorial. Another miss by a copy editor.
Page 120: AIDS, not Aids.
Page 125: Another example of asterisks gone wild.
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Page 156: Sarah was having an affair with a very wealthy Italian nobleman, Count Gaddo della Gherardesca. Lownie writes she was "so well known at his estate that she quickly became known as the Duchess of Castagneto." Most readers would wonder why. The count's estate was in Castagneto Carducci, which would explain the reference.
Page 156: Sarah did not appear in the series finale of Friends. In the final episode, Rachel got off the plane and reunited with Ross! Fergie was not in this episode. Friends ran for ten seasons.
Sarah appeared in Season Four's final episode, The One with Ross's Wedding, where she meets Joey, who is touring London.
Page 158: Lownie's timeline is wrong for when Sarah was a special correspondent for NBC's Today Show. Her Surviving Life program on Sky began in October 1998 and was canceled after the first season, but "NBC's Today breakfast show" did not recruit Sarah for a "roving reporter" position until 2008.
Sarah presented "inspiring segments" for a series, From the Heart.
164: Lownie has a humdinger of a mistake here. ...Prince Edward (who did not invite Sarah to his wedding in spite of her daughters being bridesmaids." I think Andrew means despite ... but, but, but
BEATRICE AND EUGENIE WERE NOT BRIDESMAIDS AT PRINCE EDWARD'S WEDDING!!!
I have to shout because the information is easy to check. On February 20, 1999, The Times reported: "Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones intend to leave Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie off their list of bridesmaids. The snub would highlight the rift between the couple and the Duchess of York, and the lack of enthusiasm in the Royal Family for the Duchess."
Embed from Getty ImagesEmbed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
Sophie had four attendants: Camilla Hadden, Olivia Taylor (bridesmaids, Felix Sowerbutts, and Harry Warburton.
Harry's mother, Sarah, was Prince Edward's Assistant Private Secretary. Harry and Camilla are two of Edward's godchildren. Olivia and Felix were the children of Sophie's friends, Ian and Lindy Taylor, and Julian and Lucinda Sowerbutts.
The photos show the bridal attendants and Beatrice and Eugenie at the wedding.
My clipping files come in handy. However, Andrew Lownie should have access to Nexis, Factiva, ProQuest, and the Gale British newspapers collection, which includes all major British newspapers, digitized. Surely, he has library access at Edinburgh, where he earned his Ph.D.
Page 175: thirtyminute is not one word ... two words thirty minutes or 30 minutes.
Page 182. Sex with... squadrons. The dancing asterisks have messed up this particular page.
page 187 No one caught this? The book's topic should be the big splash, not the book's substandard quality.
Pages198, 200, 219: those darn dancing asterisks again!
Page 238: How did crisps get pushed down to the following line when there was enough room on the previous line? Someone hit the submit button far too early.
Page 241: another misalignment of text and no quotation marks -- this is a common issue -- for one of Sarah's statements. Quotation marks (for quotes) are often AWOL in this book.
Page 260: Lownie describes Paddle8 as Eugenie's company. She did not own the company, which was co-founded by Aditya Julka, Alexander Gilkes, and Osman Khan in 2011. Eugenie moved to New York City in 2013 after accepting a three-month internship with Paddle8, an online auction house. This turned into a full-time job. In July 2015, she accepted an offer for an associate director's position with Hauser & Wirth.
I highlighted the drunken text, and wonder if it is a direct quote. No quotation marks, no citation, endnote, or footnote.
Page 286: More drunken text.
Page 290: the dancing asterisk returns.
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There are five years between 2017 and 2022, during which Andrew joins his family for the walk from Sandringham House to the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. Christmas was not spent at Sandringham during COVID-19 (2020-2021).
Also on discombulated page 328, Lownie writes: in a further deposition of documents, Epstein pleaded the Fifth. Was this done by a seance or an Ojida board, as Epstein was already dead -- since August 2019. This comes in the paragraph following the mistake about Andrew and Sandringham.
Page 335: Misalignment of text.
Page 337: So many things to unpack. The lack of a proper narrative bothers me. Here we have Lownie talking, quoting others about Andrew's sex drive ... but it is impossible to follow a timeline with the comments on this page. He quotes James Whitaker, a doyen of royal journalism, but when were these comments made?. He died in 2012.
In the final paragraph, one sentence is repeated.
Page 347: Henry Beaufort, Duke of Beaufort. The family name is Somerset, not Beaufort, although the Duke signs his name as Beaufort, with no first name.
Page 356: another example of misaligned text.
I was exhausted by the time I finished the book, not from the reading, but from jotting down all the mistakes I found. The book is a shambles, which is disappointing as I expected scholarship.
Simon & Schuster bowed out of publishing the US edition of the book. I cannot speak for the publisher, but after reading this edition, I can understand why.
The book's style and cursory fact-checking appeal more to Daily Mail readers, which is not surprising, as the newspaper published several excerpts. That is when I first noticed the mistake about Beatrice and Eugenie as bridesmaids. Due to the lack of citations and so many mistakes, the book will be of less interest to historians. A more serious historian will delve further and write the appropriate tome.
Be a James Pope Hennessy, a Philip Magnus, a Joh Röhl. Don't be a Kitty Kelley or a Lytton Strachey.
I recently finished reading The Belle Epoque Life in Paris Olga Paley and Paul of Russia by Wilfried Zeisler (Hillwood & Mare & Martin). This book is pure scholarship, which is something Andrew Lownie should try to accomplish in a total update of Entitled The Rise and Fall of the House of York.
