My book for July is Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II by Phillip Eade. After watching the first two seasons of the The Crown, I walked away thinking that I have to read a book about Prince Phillip and found this one in Amazon.
I came away from the book with three general observations. First, the names and interrelationships of all the European royal families in the 19th and early 20th century are a little overwhelming. There were so many people in and out of Phillip and his parent's lives that it was hard to keep them all straight. It is really amazing how the European royal families were related!
Second, I didn't appreciate the extent of Phillip's World War II service and his naval career after the war. While it is mentioned in passing in The Crown, he saw some serious action in the Mediterranean during the war. Additionally, Phillip had a serious naval career as an officer before marrying Elizabeth.
Finally, in the series, you do get a sense that Phillip's parents abandoned him at fairly young age. Nevertheless, the degree to which he moved around and lived with different families in different countries is astonishing. His parents left his upbringing to other people.
I enjoyed the book and recommend it. It is a great supplement to the Netflix series The Crown.
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