Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: St. Martin's Press
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 496
Printing Date: March 28, 2002
Publishing house: St. Martin's Press
Sale Popularity Level: 1466698
Studio: St. Martin's Press
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'In 1953, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Alice was dressed from head to foot in a long gray dress and a gray cloak, and a nun's veil. Amidst all the jewels, and velvet and coronets, and the fine uniforms, she exuded an unworldly simplicity. Seated with the royal family, she was a part of them, yet somehow distanced from them. Inasmuch as she is remembered at all today, it is as this shadowy figure in gray nun's clothes...'
Princess Alice, mother of Prince Phillip, was something of a mystery figure even within her own family. She was born deaf, at Windsor Castle, in the presence of her grandmother, Queen Victoria, and brought up in England, Darmstadt, and Malta.
In 1903 she married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and from then on her life was overshadowed by wars, revolutions, and enforced periods of exile. By the time she was thirty-five, virtually every point of stability was overthrown. Though the British royal family remained in the ascendant, her German family ceased to be ruling princes, her two aunts who had married Russian royalty had come to savage ends, and soon afterwards Alice's own husband was nearly executed as a political scapegoat.
The middle years of her life, which should have followed a conventional and fulfilling path, did the opposite. She suffered from a serious religious crisis and at the age of forty-five was removed from her family and placed in a sanitarium in Switzerland, where she was pronounced a paranoid schizophrenic. As her stay in the clinic became prolonged, there was a time where it seemed she might never walk free again. How she achieved her recovery is just one of the remarkable aspects of her story.
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Rated by buyers 
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This book picked up a little more steam after the mid-point, but for the most part it was pretty boring. It was also terribly biased, which could be expected, since Prince Philip asked the author to write this book.
Alice lived during some of the most interesting times in world history, and yet I found myself pushing myself through this book. I'd probably have stopped reading it if I didn't have a little quirk about always finishing whatever book I start, no matter how badly written or boring it is.
I'm afraid the simple fact of the matter is that, from reading this book, I have to conclude that there was really nothing special about Alice, Princess Andrew, except that she was Prince Philip's mother (and she hardly ever saw him, so they weren't even close). I'm sure that's not the case -- I'm sure there were plenty of interesting things about her, and she lived during some of the most interesting times in world history. But this book fails to bring any of that excitement out. So maybe it's Vickers' fault . . . or maybe there was too much oversight by the Royal Family. Hard to say, but this book is only worth a read if you are a real dyed in the wool fan of royalty.
Rated by buyers 
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well done book of prince philip's mother . fascinating reading , and very readable . highly recommend , interesting tidbits of her mother , the no nonsense dowager marchioness of milford haven.
Rated by buyers -
I thoroughly enjoyed this book about the "mysterious/hidden" Princess. I have never been able to find out much about her. I knew the book would be good because the author was Hugo Vickers. I wasn't disappointed. I would have enjoyed more pictures, but then we all want more pictures.
Rated by buyers -
I knew a little about Alice from my reading about the British Royals, but learned a lot from this book. The author has supplied much information I had not known before. Some parts are very sad and others amusing such as a female relative scolding Alice for smoking while dressed in her nun's habit.
I think she is much more interesting than the present group of Royals!
Rated by buyers -
I love reading biographies about women and I thought this would be interesting. It was, in some respects. She lead an interesting life - certainly a typical royal life with a little mental illness thrown in. But it seems the reader needs to have a companion book to sort out the relationships between all the royals in all of Europe. Every page had a reference to somebody who was related to somebody else - all people I haven't heard of and frankly don't care about. But, hey, that's me. If all the name dropping was eliminated, the book would have been much more readible.
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