{"product_id":"the-secret-royals-spying-and-the-crown-from-victoria-to-diana-9781786499127","title":"The Secret Royals: Spying and the Crown  from Victoria to Diana","description":"\u003cp\u003eA Daily Mail Book of the Year and a The Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2021  Monumental.. Authoritative and highly readable. Ben Macintyre  The Times  A fascinating history of royal espionage. Sunday Times  Excellent... Compelling Guardian  For the first time  The Secret Royals uncovers the remarkable relationship between the Royal Family and the intelligence community  from the reign of Queen Victoria to the death of Princess Diana.  In an enthralling narrative  Richard J. Aldrich and Rory Cormac show how the British secret services grew out of persistent attempts to assassinate Victoria and then operated on a private and informal basis  drawing on close personal relationships between senior spies  the aristocracy  and the monarchy. This reached its zenith after the murder of the Romanovs and the Russian revolution when  fearing a similar revolt in Britain  King George V considered using private networks to provide intelligence on the loyalty of the armed forces - and of the broader population.  In 1936  the dramatic abdication of Edward VIII formed a turning point in this relationship. What originally started as family feuding over a romantic liaison with the American divorcee Wallis Simpson  escalated into a national security crisis. Fearing the couples Nazi sympathies as well as domestic instability  British spies turned their attention to the King. During the Second World War  his successor  King George VI gradually restored trust between the secret world and House of Windsor. Thereafter  Queen Elizabeth II regularly enacted her constitutional right to advise and warn  raising her eyebrow knowingly at prime ministers and spymasters alike.  Based on original research and new evidence  The Secret Royals presents the British monarchy in an entirely new light and reveals how far their majesties still call the shots in a hidden world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651357859893,"sku":"ByrdShop_1786499126","price":37.91,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781786499127.jpg?v=1781834118","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-secret-royals-spying-and-the-crown-from-victoria-to-diana-9781786499127","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}