Alan Lascelles - Kings Counsellor: Abdication and War: the Diaries of Sir Alan Lascelles

This fascinating volume is as much a contribution to royal legend as to the history of the war

Daily Telegraph

Most though by no means all of the facts we know already: it is the angle from which they are viewed and the humour and intelligence of the observer which make these diaries both brilliantly entertaining and historically priceless

Spectator

Lascelles diary now expertly edited by Duff Hart-Davis offers fascinating and hitherto unseen glimpses of some of the most significant figures of our age however, none emerges more engagingly than the diarist himself

Sunday Telegraph

Sharply written diaries

Spectator

An elegant and precise diary a revealing glimpse into the drawing rooms of the great during the years of crisis and victory Lascelles was an excellent judge of character and posterity has almost always proved him right

Evening Standard

Offers genuine insights into the role of the Kings adviser

Independent

A great read, written with humour and elegance

Belfast Telegraph

These diaries were first published in 2006, and had been preceded by two earlier volumes End of an Era (1986) and In Royal Service (1989). The first, which covered the authors days at school and university, his early social life and his service in the First World War, as well as his marriage in India, was not in any way controversial; but the second and third, both of which described his close involvement with the Royal Family, had difficult transitions into print. On the one side of the struggle were myself and the authors daughters, Caroline Erskine and Lavinia Hankinson; on the other, the librarians and private secretaries who guarded the royal archives. It was as if they thought they owned the documents, and did not want anyone else to read them.

Sir Alan Lascelles known from birth as Tommy had extraordinary luck. Having failed to find a career, at the age of thirty-two he was swept off to India as ADC to his brother-in-law Sir George Lloyd, who had been appointed Governor of Bombay, and there he fell in love with Joan Thesiger, daughter of the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford. They were married with great pomp in Delhi, and after a honeymoon in Kashmir returned to England. Again, Tommy was looking for a job, and just as he was becoming agitated by his failure to land anything, he was rescued by a close friend:

Letty Elcho came to tea, and quite upset my mental equilibrium with an unofficial offer from the Prince of Wales that I become his assistant secretary at 600 per annum. The idea draws me strongly, for I have got a very deep admiration for the Prince, and I am convinced that the future of England is as much in his hands as in those of any individual.

Two weeks later, on 29 November 1920, Tommy recorded: To St Jamess Palace, where I made my bow to HRH. He won me completely he is the most attractive man Ive ever met.

When I started to work on the diaries, they were housed in the Royal Library in Windsor Castle. Reading them in the big room at the top of the Round Tower was an enjoyable task, but already I could feel the defensiveness, not to say hostility, of the guardians of the archive, backed by private secretaries at Buckingham Palace, who made sure I did not stray into territory for which I had no permission.

Our first published volume, End of an Era, which came out in 1986, covered Tommys life to the point at which he began to work for the Prince of Wales, and caused no friction. The second, In Royal Service, proved more difficult, for it recorded how, having accompanied the Prince on his tours of America, Canada and East Africa in the 1920s, Tommy came to regard him as hopelessly selfish and irresponsible, and quite unfit for his future role as sovereign. So disgusted was he with the Princes behaviour that in January 1929 he resigned.

For the royal archivists, this was uncomfortable stuff, and they did their best to retard publication. Their principal weapon was delay. A letter which I wrote to an official at the Palace on 28 September one year was answered on 26 April, seven months later. Such tactics made progress slow; but, to our surprise, we got permission to publish our second volume, which went up to 1936 and included a brief account of Tommys bust-up with the Prince (who responded by presenting him with a new car).

One day, reading ahead into the diary which covered the Second World War, I came upon an astonishing passage of ten or so pages in which Tom-my set down a devastating retrospective assessment of the Princes character and behaviour. He was provoked into writing it by sight of a stock obituary which The Times sent to the Palace for his comments and his reaction was like a nuclear explosion.

To publish it then would clearly exceed the bounds of the permission we had already negotiated, for it was written in 1942; but since it referred to events during the 1920s, I tried by sleight of hand to slip it into Volume 2, knowing that it would boost sales of the book immensely. Alas, my ruse was detected: the plan had to be abandoned, and the book appeared in 1989 without Tommys scorching indictment.

The third volume the present one was the hottest property of the lot, for it gives a detailed account of the authors association with King George VI throughout four years of the Second World War, and includes many memorable episodes, not least Tommys successful attempt to stop Church-ill, the Prime Minister, taking the King aboard HMS