Royal Service

Description for ROYAL SERVICE: MY TWELVE YEARS AS VALET TO PRINCE CHARLES by Stephen P Barry:

Since the fairy-tale marriage of the dashing Prince to the blonde and beautiful Lady Diana in July 1981, followed by the birth a year later of Prince William of Wales, the public's fascination with Great Britain's Royal Family has continued unabated. And Stephen Barry, personal valet to Prince Charles for the twelve years prior to the Prince's marriage, was privy to more confidential information and closer to the day-to-day activities of the future monarch than almost anyone else. In ROYAL SERVICE, Barry take us into the inner workings of Buckingham Palace and reveals what it is really like to be a commoner living and working side-by-side with royalty. On the one had, Barry maintains, "one is so protected working for the Royals that it can be difficult to function on one's feet outside." Royals are indeed "different" from the rest of us, and that difference is rigidly upheld: "however kind and friendly they are, in the end they are Royal". This candid memoir details those differences with clarity, humor and affection.

Filled with personal anecdotes, from intimate revelations about the "other women" in the Prince's life to the courtship of Diana, to particulars of the fabled honeymoon on the Royal yacht "Britannia", ROYAL SERVICE provides a never-before look through the Royal keyhole at the entire family. We join family picnics at Sandringham, go grouse shooting at Balmoral, and participate in the joyous family Christmas at Windsor Castle. We learn about the different relationships between family members, from the Queen and Prince Philip to the independent Princesses Margaret and Anne, and we get as well an exclusive look at Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles in their unique dual relationship as mother/son and monarch/heir apparent.

ROYAL SERVICE is also the poignant story of a commoner who came into the Palace as a footman in 1967 at the age of nineteen and only three years later found himself traveling around the globe with his Prince---from polo matches in Australia to the funeral of Anwahr Sadat in Cairo---and organizing the enormously bushy workload of the future monarch.

In sum, ROYAL SERVICE is truly an "upstairs at Buckingham Palace"---a delectable, unforgettable portrait of Prince Charles by the only man who could have written it.