Happy Ending
FOR A KING'S LOVE. By Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia. (OdhamS Press, 21s.) EVER since Alphonse Daudet wrote his famous book Rois en Exil, which was about the last reigning King of Naples and his family, the reading public have shown an appetite for the intimate revelations of dispossessed Crowned Heads. The most recent addition to this long list of niemoirs is Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia's story which is certainly the most frank and astonish- ing book of its kind that I have seen.
The interest in it is that only so very recently the matrimonial troubles of King Peter and Queen Alexandra were aired in the public press, quarrels and reconciliations, divorce proceedings started but never finished, the Queen in revolt against her mother- in-law, the Dowager Queen of Yugoslavia, against the politicians, against the plotters. Fortunately, the story has a happy ending and the King and Queen now live modestly, but happily, in Cannes. The most harrowing part of the narrative was when, during the absence of King Peter, the bailiffs arrived at the Queen's Paris hotel and sequestrated all her belongings. Later on, the Queen attempted to commit suicide but was saved in time by the most sympathetic character in the narrative, the present Queen Of Greece, who is known to her circle of friends and relatives as 'Freddie.' This royal lady was, and I am sure still is, ready to help anybody in genuine distress and she certainly saved Queen Alexandra's life and reason. A second lady who showed great sympathy and kindness to the harassed Queen was the Duchess of Kent, who is a relative of hers. The vicissitudes of the royal couple when living in New York deeply in debt make amusing reading. The Queen had to do her own shopping for the first time
in her life and was somewhat startled, after all the royal ritual to which she had been accustomed, when the assistant in the deli6tessen shop invariably addressed her as 'Sweetie.' The pretty Queen who writes this book has now a Crown Prince to look after as well as her wayward husband.
GERALD HAMILTON
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