Craig Brown (1) (1957–)

Mostly-bitchy-with-flashes of empathy take on a woman who is largely portrayed as snobbish and mean. As Brown himself says, it’s not the victors who write history but the writers, and writers make choices. Most of the time he portrays her negatively but there are hints here and there that there might be more to the story. It was fun to read but I did not feel like a very nice person as I cackled along with Brown's catty anecdotes of Margaret's cluelessness and superiority. He hits the show more appeal of his book on the head in an early chapter about Margaret's appeal to bohemians- her presence made them feel respectable/part of the establishment, but then they could mock her behind her back and feel superior. That's what the whole experience of reading the book was like for me. And I don’t think any of that is appealing to anyone’s better angels. show less

If you ever slowed your car on a major highway to see the accident that caused the delay, then you will know what it is like reading this incredibly boring, bitchy book!

After watching the portrayal of Princes Margaret on the well-known series The Crown, this book caught my eye on a sale table. The author depicts an in-depth portrayal of a tragic life of a sad, perhaps mentally ill second best princess. Missing the inheritance of becoming the queen of England by a few short years, she watched show more jealously as her sister held the coveted position.

This framed the rest of her entire life Self absorbed, nasty to the point of severe rudeness, she spent her life demanding attention. A rude guest of those who made the mistake of accommodating her in their homes, all too soon, people grew to despise her nastiness, her curtness, and her demand for attention.

Rude to the point where people felt like slapping her, she lived off the poor people of England who could barely put food on their tables. She was a good case for why it is time to dismantle the way too old system of bowing down to those who least deserve to draw the blood off others.

Not worth reading! I cannot recommend it. As I read it, I thought I really should have put it down! show less

Craig Brown’s biography of the Queen’s younger sister is playfully subversive of both it’s subject and biography as a form. He makes no attempt to write ‘The Definitive Biography of Princess Margaret’ and, by not doing so, may well have written her definitive biography. It’s certainly the funniest one.

Keeping it to a fairly modest 400 pages or so - modest by the blockbusting standards prevalent among biographers that is - Brown avoids the tedium of linear chronology and provides show more an apparently random sequence of vignettes, reflections and parodic flights of fantasy.

He clearly had no difficulty collating hair-raising and toe-curling tales of the spare princess behaving badly. She seems to have experienced an almost schizophrenic pull between her desire to be unconventional and mix in bohemian circles (strictly blue-chip bohemians, of course) and her need to remind everyone of her special status. This could be confusing for those around her. Not that her courtiers deserve much sympathy - obsequious in her presence and malicious towards her in their private diaries (not private at all, actually, as they were all intended for eventual publication). The privileged milieu is amply evoked and sounds like Hell.

Too intelligent to write a simple hatchet job, Brown writes a skilfully nuanced hatchet job, instead. Perceptive, original and extremely funny. show less

One on One is a very interesting read about the meetings between famous people throughout history (well, mostly 20th-century), creating a chain starting with an up-and-coming politician named Adolf Hitler and ending, 101 entertaining encounters later, back with Hitler again. Sometimes the linkages are surprising, sometimes they are contrived (it is remarkable how so many famous people use their pull just to meet other famous people). Sometimes sparks fly, and one paragraph on page 79 borders show more on the absurd: a fight between Eli Wallach (Tuco from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) and the Deputy Leader of the British Labour Party is broken up by the director of The Guns of Navarone.

But although Craig Brown's book made me laugh a few times, and never becomes boring or same-y, the main impression I will take from it is just how conceited, vain, priggish or just plain unpleasant many famous people are. Some seem nice (the chain from Rudyard Kipling to Mark Twain to Helen Keller to Martha Graham to Madonna is one big love-in) but many (Noël Coward, Lord Snowdon, P. L. Travers, Nancy Reagan, Andy Warhol, Frank Sinatra – especially Frank Sinatra – to name but a few) now seem to me like the kind of people I would cross the street to avoid. That Hitler bloke, in his two appearances, comes across as an amiable chap though.

All told, the book was an enjoyable and breezy experience; I read through it in just a couple of days and never tired of doing so. Brown, despite occasionally shining a light on some of the more disagreeable personalities of famous people, never quite descends to muck-raking and consequently keeps the reader onside. Brown's fixation with the number 101 seems a bit unnecessary and excessive (at the end of the book, he notes: I have described each of the 101 meetings in exactly 1001 words, which makes One on One 101,101 words long. The acknowledgements, prefacing quotes, author's blurb, book's blurb and list of my other books each consist of 101 words…") but I perhaps shouldn't be too critical here. For it is no coincidence that I decided to read this on 1st January: 01/01." show less