All About Royal Families

During the covid pandemic I really missed the tiara moments of the royals, though I found some solace in beautiful books. One of them was published on 1 December 2021 and written/collected by photographer Chris Jackson. The book came just in time for Christmas and New Year. It is a collection of the most beautiful pictures of Queen Elizabeth II during the two most recent decades of her reign. It also mentions the highlights of the royal year in the United Kingdom. The book is devided into 7 chapters: - An extraordinary reign; - Duty and Dignity; - Global Icon; - Never out of fashion; - Family First; - Horses and Highlands; - Passing on the Baton. This is a wonderful book for the royal collection.  I hope there will be plenty of more royal books and souvenirs for the Platium Jubilee.  Who is Chris Jackson? Chris Jackson is Getty Images Royal Photographer . From private shoots with HM The Queen to The Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince H

Recently I bought from the local library a small but amazing book in Dutch called Diana & Dodi: A love Story. It was written by Rene, the butler and personal assistant from Dodi Al Fayed. He saw the romance between Diana, the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed blossoming untill their tragic death on 31 August 1997 in Paris. I think most of the people knew Diana, Princess of Wales but who was Dodi (Al) Fayed? Who was Dodi Fayed? Dodi was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 15 April 1955 as the eldest son of  Mohammed Al Fayed and Samira Khashoggi. Dodi studied in Swiss and he served as an attaché at the United Arab Emirates Embassy in London. Later Dodi was a producer for film and movie series. He also worked for his father on Harrod's marketing. In 1986, Dodi married Suzanne Gregard but the couple divorced after a few months.  Only in July 1997 Dodi became romantically involved to Diana, Princess of Wales. My review The tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed shock

Recently I bought the Dutch book Learning by doing written by Eloise van Oranje. Eloise, who? Countess Eloise of Orange-Nassau (born on 8 June 2002) is the first child and  eldest daughter of Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien of The Netherlands.  She is thus a granddaughter of former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Prince Claus. She also is the great-granddaughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard.  Her maternal grandfather is Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, a retired Dutch politician and jurist.  Eloise is a member of the Dutch Royal Family and fifth in the line of the succession of the Dutch throne.  She is active on Social Media as Eloise of Orange. However due to her studies she now is less on Instagram. The Book Learning by doing I was pleasantly surprised by reading the book: Learning by doing. Although Eloise is a young enterprising girl, it even was interesting for me. In her first book she talked about her student life, her love for vintage fashion,

Buckingham Palace is without no doubt one of the most iconic buildings of London and the symbol of the British monarchy.  This book is not about the palace itself or the events that happened there but it's, what me interested the most: its gardens.  Normally it's hidden from sight as it is The Queen's private Londen garden. However the garden also fulfils many roles. Every summer it welcomes thousands of guests for the famous Garden Parties.  Buckinham Palace - A Royal Garden is a wonderful book from the Royal Collection  Trust and written by Claire Masset.  The book The book features wonderful pictures and fatastic ideas to implement at your garden or balcony at home.  The chapters are devided in the seasons of the year: spring, summer, autumn and  of course winter with lots of fantastic hints. It also tells about the history of Buckingham Palace: A Royal Garden, when  King George III and Queen Charlotte turned parts of the garden to pasture.  And it reveals which garden f

A decade of Modern Royal Style Recently, I saw an interesting book on Amazon. Although it wasn't about royal history, I was keen to read it, just because the main topics were fashion and style. It was a lovely book with lots of amazing pictures from the Duchess of Cambridge, born Catherine "Kate" Middleton. A picture of the Duchess of Cambridge a decade of modern royal style picture: book cover The author mentioned on which occassions the Duchess of Cambridge wore her most stylish clothes.  Anyway it is a lovely book and a quick read with mostly pictures, clear chapters and an easy language.  Besides that, it is well written and the author has done a lot of detailed research.  If you are interested in the British Royal family and in the Duchess of Cambridge then, this book is a must-read!  In 2022 The Duchess of Cambridge became the Princess of Wales. 

Royals and especially the royal history interest me very much. I really enjoy in taking the opportunity to read books about these fascinating topics. This week, I chose the book 'The Top 5 most famous queens' about Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Elisabeth I, Catherine the Great and Victoria. The book is edited by Charles River Editors. This is  - according to Amazon - a digital publishing  company that creates compelling, educational content. It is a bit of a spoiler that the names of The Top 5 of the Most famous queens are already released on the bookcover. However the 5 biographies are interesting though short stories. The Top 5 of the Most Famous Queens also is written very clear and fluently, so it is pleasant to read. Is the book to recommend? Well, sure it is! Especially for royal history fans, but it wasn't specialized.  Nevertheless, I'm happy, I read this book. Source picture: bookcover I read this book via koboplus and bol.com

With this 'Books on Sunday', the Allaboutroyalfamilies blog continues to review books about the Belgian royal family. Albert & Elisabeth is written by Princess Esmeralda of Belgium and Christophe Vachaudez. It was issued by Lannoo. Based on numerous private photos, most of them were never published before, the book 'Albert & Elisabeth' shows an intimate portrait of the third Belgian King and Queen. King Albert I of Belgium and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, born duchess in Bavaria, were very popular not only in their own country but also in Europe, United Kingdom and the world, especially because of their role during World War I. With their popularity, then and now, in mind, this royal history book full with lovely pictures is a real treasure to read. Princess Esmeralda (also mentioned as Princess Marie-Esméralda) of Belgium is the youngest daughter of King  Leopold III and Lilian Baels.  She is thus a granddaughter of King  Albert I of Bel

It has been a while but I finally finished reading a book. Readers of the Allaboutroyalfamilies blog know that travels, culture, art and of course royal history interest me very much. In particular the Royal History of the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire. So, recently I had the chance to read the 'History of the Ottoman Empire', written by William Deans and published on 6 October 2014 by Didactic Press. I really like chronological written history books and this is the case with 'History of the Ottoman Empire'. The author uses a clear timeline. The Ottoman Empire was founded around 1299 and lasted till 1922/ 1923. It was one of the powerfull states with a royal on top, which were doomed after World War I.  The Onthisday posts at this Allaboutroyalfamilies blog contain often very  short biographies about the Ottoman Sultans and of course the Ottoman Empire is mentioned on the page royal families in the world.  More on this link .  Source p

During many visits in the most splendid palaces, it always strikes me that noble people and royalty always spent much of attention to their library. It really is a pleasure to walk in such beautiful places full of history. It must be clear that a lot of Kings and Queens love to read. In Belgium we know that King Philippe of the Belgians is an avid reader and in March 2020 (just as on many more occasions,) Queen Mathilde of the Belgians encouraged young people to start reading. King Philippe of the Belgians inherited his passion for reading books by his ancestors. Queen Louise-Marie of Belgium, born as Princess Louise d'Orléans liked to read too. Her favourites were works from Lord Byron, Shakespeare, Balzac and Victor Hugo. One other Belgian royal who liked to read was Elisabeth in Bavaria (1876-1965). She married to King Albert I of Belgium (then Crown Prince) in 1900. She was Queen Consort of Belgium from 1909 till 1934. In 2015, her favourite books wer

If even Goodreads states: you're behind your reading scheme of the year, it's certainly time to read some royal books :-) This 'Books on Sunday' is about someone who lately has touched lots of royalty watchers. It's about Delphine Boël. Finally, after all these years, King Albert II of Belgium has admitted, in a very cold message that Delphine Boël is his natural daughter. But who is she? Delphine Michèle Anne Marie Ghislaine Boël was born on 22 February 1968 as the daughter of Sybille de Seleys Longchamps and King Albert II of Belgium. However Sybilles official husband, Jacques Boël (a member of a noble family of industrialists) recognized Delphine as his daughter. The couple divorced in 1978. Delphine attended boarding school in England and Switzerland and she studied at the Chelsea School of Art and Design in London. In 1990 she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Fine arts. In 1999, Mario Danneels published his book Paola from la Dolce Vita t

Last week I read the excellent book: Harry Conversations with the Prince, written by Angela Levin. The book was edited in 2018 by John Blake Publishing Ltd. London and the imprint was from Kings Road Publishing Ltd. The translation in Dutch was made in 2018 by Just Publishers - Hans van Maar. Harry Conversations with the Prince was well written in 14 clear chapters. The book talked inter alia about 1/ the youth & the childhood 2/ Prince Harry's education 3/ His relation with Prince William 4/ The Divorce of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales 5/ The loss of his mother 6/ The muteneer 7/ the gap year 8/ Soldier and Prince 9/ Harry's War 10/ Officer Wales 11/ Prince Harry's Ups and Downs 12/ His charities and his projects 13/ About Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. 14/ About his vision. Whether you like Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex or not, the conversations written by Angela Levin is a great opportunity to understand the Pr

On 14 November 2019, Charles, Prince of Wales became 71 years old. But who is this man exactly? If you want to know this question, you certainly have to read the book: "Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable life". The book was first published in April 2017 by Random House and translated to Dutch by Rik Smith and published by Nieuw Amsterdam. Prince Charles is the oldest heir to the throne in more than 100 years. This special record was an eyeopener for me and a reason to read this biography. The book tells about his childhood, his education, the carreer in the army, his meeting with several women, the dream wedding with Lady Diana Spencer, the reunion with his love Camila and his relationship with William, Catherine, Harry and his grandchildren. The book shows a complicated, independent man although he still waits after more than 5 decades for the throne. 'Prince Charles' was written very fluently! After watching the

From 20 October 2019 till 27 October 2019 it was a beautiful but busy week for the royals and also for the blogs about royalty.  There was a splendid enthronement in Japan and the 18th. B-Day ceremony of Princess Elisabeth of Belgium. I really loved both important royal events but I only managed to read one book over the last few weeks.  More about the royal events on these links: Link 1 Link 2 I chose the book: 'Albert & Elisabeth: Mes Parents', written in French by princess Marie José of Belgium, the last Queen of Italy. Queen Marie José lived from 1906 till 2001 and she was the youngest child of King Albert I of Belgium and Queen Elisabeth. Together with her brothers Prince Charles of Belgium and Leopold (Later King Leopold III) she experienced the war and the turbulent years between the two wars in a small, protected world. It were heavy times on the field of military, politics, social, economical internationally and nationally. In

The last weeks were busy ones, so I only could read two fantastic royal books. The first one was Victoria the Queen, written by Julia Baird , which is of course a splendid biography about Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. I liked reading this interesting book about Queen Victoria, which was written  very well  and it gives an idea about her life from birth till death.  It also describes the era of Queen Victoria , her ministers, writers, inventors and many other important people.  This is a biography as it should be.  The other royal biography was a book written in Dutch about an other interesting queen: Queen Elisabeth of Belgium written by Ralf De Jonge. Elisabeth became the third queen of Belgium from 1909 till 1934. In the book, which also was written very well the author tells about Elisabeth's youth in Bavaria, about her bond with her aunt Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi) , her marriage to Crown Prince Albert of Belgium, her  duties as a

The imperial history of Russia always has fascinated me, due to the 'sudden' fall of the  dynasty in 1917. Reading a book about this amazing history always is a special  treat for me. The more when the lecture is written very well and very  interesting. Alexander II The Last Great Tsar screenshot About the book 'Alexander II the last Great Tsar' Alexander II (1818-1881) was not just a biography about the Tsar but the book also told the story of his era, the dissatisfaction of the Russian nobility and the common citizens. The book also mentioned lots of chapters about Terrorism, which started during the life of Alexander II. It even hinted about the start of the fall of the monarchy (which ended in 1917). I really liked this book: Alexander II the last Great Tsar, because it wasn't written in a boring or dry way at all. It was very vibrant and easy to read. bookcover Alexander II De Laatste grote Tsaar in Dutch About Edvar

Sometimes books really became famous, sometimes their authors became stars. However at Porto in Portugal there is one bookstore which is extremely famous. The bookstore is called Livraria Lello. Lello is one of the oldest bookshops of Portugal and it is high rated in travel guides such as Lonely Planet. Lello Bookstore in Porto Portugal History In 1869, the Livraria Internacional de Ernesto Chardron was founded by the Frenchman Ernesto Chardron. At the age of 45 Ernesto died. The firm was sold to Lugan & Genelioux Sucessores. However in 1881, José Lello along with his brother-in-law created the firm David Pereira & Lello. After the death of David Pereira the establishment again changed its name in José Pinto de Sousa Lello & Irmão when José partnered with his younger brother António Lello. In 1891, the Chardron Bookstore acquired the establishments of A.R da Cruz Coutinho and other bookstores in the city. Mathieux Lugan sold his share in the Chard