Behind the Throne, Adrian Tinniswood
Behind the Throne, Adrian Tinniswood
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

Behind the Throne
A Domestic History of the British Royal Household

Author: Adrian Tinniswood

Narrator: Steven Crossley

Unabridged: 14 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 11/06/2018

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

An "enchanting" upstairs/downstairs history of the British royal court, from the Middle Ages to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (Wall Street Journal).

Monarchs: they're just like us. They entertain their friends and eat and worry about money. Henry VIII tripped over his dogs. George II threw his son out of the house. James I had to cut back on the alcohol bills.

In Behind the Throne, historian Adrian Tinniswood uncovers the reality of five centuries of life at the English court, taking the reader on a remarkable journey from one Queen Elizabeth to another and exploring life as it was lived by clerks and courtiers and clowns and crowned heads: the power struggles and petty rivalries, the tension between duty and desire, the practicalities of cooking dinner for thousands and of ensuring the king always won when he played a game of tennis.

A masterful and witty social history of five centuries of royal life, Behind the Throne offers a grand tour of England's grandest households.

About Adrian Tinniswood

Adrian Tinniswood is a Senior Research Fellow in History at the University of Buckingham and the author of many books, including The Rainborowes. He lives in Bath, England.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship

This is a mildly interesting but overall unremarkable book, with a title that doesn’t quite describe its content. While the book is billed as covering the workings of the British royal household over several centuries – from Elizabeth I to II – it seems to spend more time on the personal lives of th......more

Goodreads review by Moniek

Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the British Royal Household takes a look at the workings of the royal household, above and below stairs. We begin with Queen Elizabeth I and end with the second Elizabeth 500 years later. I enjoyed the first parts of the book but as it also focusses heavily o......more

Quotes

"A glimpse into a world where everything is possible for the rulers, because the ruled do all the work: This sounds enchanting, and so Behind the Throne proves to be...The author has a wry humor and a way with a phrase."—Wall Street Journal

"Charmingly erudite...Like a seasoned tour guide, Tinniswood keeps us moving through chambers of wonders, from the Elizabethan to the modern era...Tinniswood is both a careful scholar and a nimble writer."—Washington Post

"Shrewdly observed and engagingly written...A cracking read, packed full of stories which Tinniswood relates with verve and wit."—Spectator (UK)

"Tinniswood (The Long Weekend) explores the inner workings of the well-oiled machine that is the household, servants, and monarchy of Britain...A masterpiece of history that reads like a novel; a true delight."—Library Journal (starred review)

"[Tinniswood] amply, entertainingly, compellingly succeeds in making the case that when it comes to British royalty, it takes a village to make a monarch."—New York Journal of Books

"[Tinniswood] displays a knack for uncovering the absurd and delightful. A wit borne of a deep intimacy with his subject shows through. It all has the effect of bringing the monarchy down to earth."—New York Times Book Review

"[A] juicy new domestic history of the royal household...Tinniswood's magpie narrative is...about boundaries: the walls, literal and metaphorical, that separate monarchs from their people."—Guardian

"Fascinating...Never overly deferential, but humorous and distantly respectful. Our royals are human beings after all...Behind the Throne is a wonderfully entertaining account of life through five centuries of royal households."—Sunday Times

"Behind the Throne, erudite and amusing, bulges with colourful scenes of barely managed chaos at court."—Times

"[A] juicy new domestic history of the royal household...Delicious."—Observer

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List