There is another story of Marion’s own life and relationships alongside the royal progress, of a woman from a modest home, struggling to find the right clothes, the right words for dealing with unique situations. A time of war, the developing personalities of the girls and much else is explored in depth. From there she is a witness to the inner workings of royalty, the personalities that led to an abdication and its effects. Marion is persuaded to take a holiday job with the then Duchess of York’s sister, and is firmly persuaded to transfer to the Duke’s household. She is seduced in several ways, as well trying to help Annie, a small girl in terrible poverty. She is determined to make a difference, especially when she comes across Valentine, a student at Edinburgh university who has great ambitions to change the whole of society. This is a perceptive and intensely written novel of big events, human relationships and the reality of life in royal households at a significant time.Īt the beginning of Marion’s story she is an idealistic teaching student who finds a sharp contrast between the rarified atmosphere of a private boys’ school and the harsh nature of life in Scotland’s poorest slums. Marion’s desire for her own life conflicts with what is perhaps the greater need of a girl destined to be queen, and the events which shaped her. It is the story of a strong woman who is determined to ensure that two girls would have contact with a world beyond the palace walls. It makes no claim to be a documentary, and some of the story may be inaccurate, but overall this is a novel which is secure in its settings and makes sense of some grey areas. This is a well researched novel which takes a particular line of narrative which blends assumptions with objective history. The story is about national events from Marion’s perspective, an insider but never truly on the real inside when trouble arose. At one point she says to the young Margaret “I sacrificed my happy days for you, you see.”, and much of this book is about her choices being affected by others. This is how the author starts this intense novel, with an elderly woman waiting for a sign that she is important to the two women she devoted her life to for so many years. Marion, or “Crawfie, is apparently not mentioned much in the official accounts of the royal family’s life, as she was seen to have betrayed their privacy by writing her own story. In this fictionalised account of her life Marion is a strong willed young woman who wants to make difference, and probably did in an unexpected way. She was not an obvious choice her background was unconnected to high society and she had left wing sympathies. Marion Crawford became governess to the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in 1933.
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