The Guy Harford Mysteries by T P Fielden
Feb. 18th, 2024 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callmemadam Stealing the Crown
Burying the Crown
Betraying the Crown
I read these three books one after another, which suggests I enjoyed them. What I didn’t bother to read on Amazon and didn’t see until finishing the first book was this:
‘TP Fielden is the fiction-writing name of the acclaimed royal biographer and commentator Christopher Wilson, who has penned biographies of Charles, Camilla, Diana and other members of the British royal family.’
I’ve never heard of Christopher Wilson or his royal biographies and if I’d read this earlier, I might not have bothered with the books, which would have been a shame.
Britain in wartime. Guy Harford is a painter living in Tangier when he gets involved in a diplomatic fracas, is made a scapegoat and bundled off home, leaving everything behind. He’s given a job in the Foreign Office and a flatmate, the enigmatic Rupert. Then Guy is seconded to Buckingham Palace, where his main job is to ensure that no whiff of scandal ever gets out about their majesties and the princesses. We know very little about Guy. He is tall, handsome, charming, has nice manners. We only know this because other people say so. He's a chap with the kind of aunt who leaves him a house in Tangier, all of which marks him as a member of the English upper middle class. As for who his parents were (are?) or what school he went to, they are mysteries and these things matter in the circles he now moves in.
Guy doesn’t feel very welcome at Buck House and his name is mud with some courtiers because of Tangier. Sometimes he’s just a dogsbody given an unpleasant job, for instance being sent to see Queen Mary and tell her she must not buy sausages on the black market. There are many more serious matters. Traitors and pro-Nazi sympathisers within the palace itself, planning to put the Duke of Windsor back on the throne or place the Duke of Gloucester there as regent, should anything happen to George VI. Either man would be a Nazi puppet. In another book, what *really* happened on the flight which killed the Duke of Kent and all but one of the others on board? In the third book, is the Duke of Windsor really planning to become an American citizen and does he do everything his wife tells him to? (Well, obv. he does.) Each book also contains a murder, one in the palace itself, each one to be covered up quickly but which Guy pursues, in order to get at the truth. He’s rather too fond of the truth for this job.
What of his private life? He soon finds that Rupe probably works for MI6 and is sharing the flat partly to keep an eye on Guy. He continues to paint and is lent a studio by an artist who wants to get out of London. The most important person in his life, though, is Rodie. She’s a wonderful character; tiny, stunningly beautiful, from Elephant and Castle (I would say the Elephant and Castle but never mind), brought up among criminals and such a brilliant and brave burglar that Rupe officially employs her to work for the Foreign Office. Guy’s portrait of her causes a sensation when it’s exhibited. She falls for Guy at first sight and is constantly badgering him to marry her. Could it work? A lot of Guy’s work means dealing with rich and influential people (some of this seems straight out of Chips Channon’s diaries and he even gets a name check at one point). Rodie is jealous of the rich and glamorous women he meets. Whatever he’s dutifully doing, Guy dreams of Tangier and painting there. Yet he is rather good at the job.
Apart from the royals, several other real-life people appear: ‘Tommy’ Lascelles, Winston Churchill, Augustus John, Constant Lambert and others. Apart from the young princesses, who feature only briefly, the royal family don’t come well out of this, especially Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother. You feel though that it’s the courtiers, determined to defend the monarchy to the death, who really run the show. Since we are almost certainly being lied to at the moment about the true state of health of the King and the Princess of Wales, Fielden’s fictions seem quite believable. A very entertaining series and a real fright in Betraying the Crown.
Burying the Crown
Betraying the Crown
I read these three books one after another, which suggests I enjoyed them. What I didn’t bother to read on Amazon and didn’t see until finishing the first book was this:
‘TP Fielden is the fiction-writing name of the acclaimed royal biographer and commentator Christopher Wilson, who has penned biographies of Charles, Camilla, Diana and other members of the British royal family.’
I’ve never heard of Christopher Wilson or his royal biographies and if I’d read this earlier, I might not have bothered with the books, which would have been a shame.
Britain in wartime. Guy Harford is a painter living in Tangier when he gets involved in a diplomatic fracas, is made a scapegoat and bundled off home, leaving everything behind. He’s given a job in the Foreign Office and a flatmate, the enigmatic Rupert. Then Guy is seconded to Buckingham Palace, where his main job is to ensure that no whiff of scandal ever gets out about their majesties and the princesses. We know very little about Guy. He is tall, handsome, charming, has nice manners. We only know this because other people say so. He's a chap with the kind of aunt who leaves him a house in Tangier, all of which marks him as a member of the English upper middle class. As for who his parents were (are?) or what school he went to, they are mysteries and these things matter in the circles he now moves in.
Guy doesn’t feel very welcome at Buck House and his name is mud with some courtiers because of Tangier. Sometimes he’s just a dogsbody given an unpleasant job, for instance being sent to see Queen Mary and tell her she must not buy sausages on the black market. There are many more serious matters. Traitors and pro-Nazi sympathisers within the palace itself, planning to put the Duke of Windsor back on the throne or place the Duke of Gloucester there as regent, should anything happen to George VI. Either man would be a Nazi puppet. In another book, what *really* happened on the flight which killed the Duke of Kent and all but one of the others on board? In the third book, is the Duke of Windsor really planning to become an American citizen and does he do everything his wife tells him to? (Well, obv. he does.) Each book also contains a murder, one in the palace itself, each one to be covered up quickly but which Guy pursues, in order to get at the truth. He’s rather too fond of the truth for this job.
What of his private life? He soon finds that Rupe probably works for MI6 and is sharing the flat partly to keep an eye on Guy. He continues to paint and is lent a studio by an artist who wants to get out of London. The most important person in his life, though, is Rodie. She’s a wonderful character; tiny, stunningly beautiful, from Elephant and Castle (I would say the Elephant and Castle but never mind), brought up among criminals and such a brilliant and brave burglar that Rupe officially employs her to work for the Foreign Office. Guy’s portrait of her causes a sensation when it’s exhibited. She falls for Guy at first sight and is constantly badgering him to marry her. Could it work? A lot of Guy’s work means dealing with rich and influential people (some of this seems straight out of Chips Channon’s diaries and he even gets a name check at one point). Rodie is jealous of the rich and glamorous women he meets. Whatever he’s dutifully doing, Guy dreams of Tangier and painting there. Yet he is rather good at the job.
Apart from the royals, several other real-life people appear: ‘Tommy’ Lascelles, Winston Churchill, Augustus John, Constant Lambert and others. Apart from the young princesses, who feature only briefly, the royal family don’t come well out of this, especially Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother. You feel though that it’s the courtiers, determined to defend the monarchy to the death, who really run the show. Since we are almost certainly being lied to at the moment about the true state of health of the King and the Princess of Wales, Fielden’s fictions seem quite believable. A very entertaining series and a real fright in Betraying the Crown.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-18 01:46 pm (UTC)I haven't heard of him!
An interesting plot. I never liked the Queen Mother!
no subject
Date: 2024-02-18 02:05 pm (UTC)I think she was poison.