The gift that keeps on giving. That’s how Tina Brown, award-winning journalist, editor and author, describes the British royal family’s propensity to be a seemingly endless source of captivating, often dramatic stories. She has drawn on these gifts for her latest book, The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil. Speaking to HT Brunch on a video call from London, Brown, who has been covering the royal family for over 40 years, said her fascination for this subject lies in the fact that it is a family drama, a saga with constant arrivals and departures. The saga is all the more engaging for playing out against the backdrop of castles in the Scottish countryside, 700-room palaces, royal yachts and hunting grounds.

Brown’s editorship of Tatler magazine, beginning in 1979, coincided with the arrival of the then young and unknown Lady Diana Spencer on the scene. It marked the beginning of a new era for the House of Windsor. “As staff of a celebrity magazine, we came to know her well and, in fact, became the house organ for the engagement and the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana,” Brown says.

She was perfectly placed then to write The Diana Chronicles in 2007, a book that attempted to unravel the life of a woman who continued to be a mystery even 10 years after her death. The Palace Papers picks up from there, allowing readers to peek into the royal family, noses pressed to the glass.

Diana and sons

Despite questions about the relevance of the monarchy, it holds sway at least among the British people and is a symbol of national identity…