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Ma'am Darling
- 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret
- Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
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Summary
From our funniest writer, a portrait of our most talked-about royal.
She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando clam up. She cold-shouldered Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor.
Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. John Fowles hoped to keep her as his sex slave. Dudley Moore propositioned her. Francis Bacon heckled her. Peter Sellers was in love with her.
For Pablo Picasso, she was the object of sexual fantasy. 'If they knew what I had done in my dreams with your royal ladies,' he confided to a friend, 'they would take me to the Tower of London and chop off my head!'
Princess Margaret aroused passion and indignation in equal measures. To her friends she was witty and regal. To her enemies she was rude and demanding.
In her 1950s heyday, she was seen as one of the most glamorous and desirable women in the world. By the time of her death, she had come to personify disappointment. One friend said he had never known an unhappier woman.
The tale of Princess Margaret is pantomime as tragedy and tragedy as pantomime. It is Cinderella in reverse: hope dashed, happiness mislaid, life mishandled.
Combining interviews, parodies, dreams, parallel lives, diaries, announcements, lists, catalogues and essays, Ma'am Darling is a kaleidoscopic experiment in biography and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.
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What listeners say about Ma'am Darling
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- Lee
- 20-12-18
Betwixt and between with this one.
I did enjoy this book and yes it did have some interesting bits which had me running off to Google but IMHO most of it should be taken with a pinch of salt. I found the 'What if?' bits nauseating espically the 'marriages' and the imaginary conversations really have no place in a biography.
So on the whole it filled a few hours while doing Christmassy stuff. Bought in the sale so didn't waste a credit.
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- M. Ponsonby
- 05-02-19
Ruined by the reader
Find the imagined marriages so annoying. Listening and suddenly hearing she married Townsend and had two children by him. I had to re-listen to this bit thought I had mis-heard. So how much is truth and how much is fiction in this story? . Not too keen on the narrator either, but lots of people love her voice. Was Margaret married to Picasso or not? I thought it was true but after the Townsend bit I wonder. Pity as this book could be so interesting without the imagined bits!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Maureen Weaver
- 04-12-17
A life unfulfilled
Born into immense wealth and privilege with apparently no real purpose. Princess Margaret is portrayed as a demanding, spoilt, arrogant, selfish woman, with no thought for anyone but herself. However, the other side of the coin is a lonely, depressed and sad woman. such a shame and such a waste of a life. A true product of her environment.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Mr MJ
- 02-05-20
Hilarious and great narration
A wonderfully hilarious book with fabulous narration. Presented in an enjoyable format, the 99 stories allow glimpses into the life of Princess Margaret that are as revealing as they are entertaining.
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- D. Gillespie
- 20-01-19
Didn't live up to expectations
I knew before starting that this was an eclectic set of memories, encounters and recollections but some felt like rehashed media reports. There were a few things I didn't know but overall nothing new.
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- Amazon Customer
- 22-06-18
An interesting insight
Narrator was good...... very engaging. An interesting insight to Princess Margaret and those around her
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- Buyer
- 10-09-22
Interesting.
Clearly she was nothing but a spoilt and nasty person who was rude, promiscuous and haughty. It is laughable that she took offence at Diana and Fergie for embarrassing the Crown after her own lifestyle.
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- Ann D
- 22-01-18
Interesting and excellent narration!
This is an interesting account and seemed very balanced. The narration is excellent, perfect for this particular book.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Button Shiner
- 16-05-18
Eleanor Bron is a genius
I loved this and found it hilarious. Eleanor Bron is not to be missed in her excellent performance.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Vicuña
- 23-01-18
Simply superb; scurrilous and so different
I'm not a Royalist and although I occasionally dip into 'Royal' books or biographies, I dislike anything that smacks of having the seal of approval from the subject. I was astonished to note that Craig Brown is the author; he's an entertaining columnist, but I wouldn't have expected him to write a Royal bio. Eleanor Bron's delivery is outstanding. She catches the tone exactly right with every voice. What a woman!
As for the glimpses; I've never read a bio quite like this. Although largely linear, following HRH's life from start to finish, it flits back and forth over the years as incidents make a particular point. The source material is often from contemporaneous diary notes made made other notables. Roy Strong, Evelyn Waugh, Noel Coward. Their insight into events and remarks is astonishing.
I'm left not knowing quite what to make of this somewhat enigmatic lady. There are a few redeeming features, revealed towards the end of the book and her final years I wouldn't wish on anyone. I had no idea that Armstrong Jones was so despicable. The world seemed to adore him in the 60s and 70s but his cruelty and waspishness was appalling.
99 chapters, some long, some short, some what if and overall a remarkable and memorable listen. I really enjoyed this one, far more than I thought I might.
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1 person found this helpful