This is a very rum book indeed. Purporting to be a ‘portrait of a marriage’, the subtitle is supposed to recall Nigel Nicolson’s brilliant account of the unusual marriage of his parents, Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville West, which was, I suppose, about as far away from the home life of our own dear Queen as it is possible to get. No one denies that after 50-plus years the marriage of the royal couple is a solid partnership, but is there anything truly interesting to say about it? The marriage works, tout court; what is the point of raking the whole over yet again?

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