The Secret Royals

First edition cover

The Secret Royals: Spying and the Crown, from Victoria to Diana is a book by Richard J. Aldrich and Rory Cormac about the relationship between the British royal family and British intelligence agencies. It was published in 2021 by Atlantic Books.[1] In the forward to the book Aldrich and Cormac write of the difficulty of researching the book, noting that "writing about spies is challenging; writing about royals is more difficult; and writing about spies and royals has sometimes seemed impossible".[2]

The Secret Royals was reviewed in The Times by Richard White and Ben Macintyre.[3][4] It was reviewed in The Daily Telegraph by Matthew Dennison.[5] Dennison described the book as full of "Piquant, poignant and unexpected details [that] humanise the business of monarchy" and offered an "intriguing alternative narrative of British royal history".[5] In The Times Literary Supplement the book was reviewed by historian Richard Davenport-Hines.[6]

The Secret Royals was named a Book of the Year by the Daily Mail and a Best Book of 2021 by The Times and Sunday Times.[1]

  1. ^ a b "Atlantic Books: The Secret Royals". Atlantic Books. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  2. ^ David Pegg (7 October 2021). "The Secret Royals by Richard Aldrich and Rory Cormac review – spying and the crown". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  3. ^ Richard White (10 October 2021). "The Secret Royals by Richard J Aldrich and Rory Cormac review — a fascinating history of royal espionage". The Times. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  4. ^ Ben Macintyre (8 October 2021). "The Secret Royals by Richard Aldrich and Rory Cormac review — a history of the monarchy and spying". The Times. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  5. ^ a b Matthew Dennison (10 October 2021). "The Secret Royals review: who needs 'silly diplomats', when there are spies in the palace?". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  6. ^ Richard Davenport-Hines (3 December 2021). "All ears". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 19 July 2022.