The Golden Prince by Rebecca Dean, HarperCollins, $32.99
Buttercup blond, blue-eyed 16-year-old Edward VIII – heir to the British throne and love-thwarted subject of novel, The Golden Prince – bears an uncanny physical resemblance to another young prince and heir to the British throne, about to wed in London this Easter. But this is where the similarity ends. Edward, of course, went on to marry a divorcee and abdicate for love.
But Rebecca Dean’s gentle, slightly far-fetched part-fact part-fiction tale precedes that, recounting a royal love affair which could have changed the course of history. The lonely teen naval cadet, eldest of four brothers, son of disciplinarian King George V and distant Queen Mary, falls in love with a commoner and for this prince there’s no happy ending. A country road collision brings “David” – as the Prince is known at Dartmouth naval college – face to face with Rose Houghton, the eldest of four sisters who reside at Snowberry, a gentrified, yet blue blood-less family seat. David is bewitched with the “spiffing family life” and especially with youngest sister, loveable Lily.
Dean deftly weaves social and political detail into her historical fantasy – Rose’s suffragette leanings, Marigold’s flirtation with an emerging Hollywood – as well as commentary on the stifling royal rulebook. Perfect to wile away the hours while waiting for Wills and Kate to appear on Buck House balcony, for their post-wedding kiss.
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