Philip: The Final Portrait by Gyles Brandreth

Book Review Feb 14, 2023

My review

3/5 stars

Upon reading this book, it's very clear that the author had a solid relationship with the Prince during his lifetime. He was able to build a well-rounded picture of that lifetime, and had direct input from the Prince himself on some of the content. This fact helped to solidify what the author was saying, and gave the book some decided gravitas. I particularly appreciated the Prince's comments, as they gave good insight into how he wanted to be remembered.

I was caught off-guard by how much of the book was focused on Elizabeth and Philip as a couple, but that might be because I didn't realise that this was an updated reprint of a book written by the author about the couple several years ago. I understand that his relationship with the Queen was the major focus of his life, but he achieved so much and led such an interesting life as an individual that it would have been easy to fill a book just about him.

I also found that the book was a little repetitive at times. The author jumped around the timeline rather than following a linear path, meaning that some chapters contained the same information as others, even sometimes in the almost the same words. The book could have been a third shorter and probably still achieved the same message and discussed the same key points.

I enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek approach that was taken to talking about certain points in the Prince's life, and they were mixed well with the more deferential tone that applied throughout.

Overall, it was an interesting read but it didn't provide me with any astounding insight. Entertaining but nothing above the ordinary.

Book blurb

This is the story of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh - the longest-serving consort to the longest-reigning sovereign in British history. It is an extraordinary story, told with unique insight and authority by an author who knew the prince for more than forty years.

Philip - elusive, complex, controversial, challenging, often humorous, sometimes irascible - is the man Elizabeth II once described as her 'constant strength and guide'. Who was he? What was he really like? What is the truth about those 'gaffes' and the rumours of affairs? This is the final portrait of an unexpected and often much-misunderstood figure. It is also the portrait of a remarkable marriage that endured for more than seventy years.

Philip and Elizabeth were both royal by birth, both great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria, but, in temperament and upbringing, they were two very different people. The Queen's childhood was loving and secure, the Duke's was turbulent; his grandfather assassinated, his father arrested, his family exiled, his parents separated when he was only ten. Elizabeth and Philip met as cousins in the 1930s. They married in 1947, aged twenty-one and twenty-six.

Philip: The Final Portrait tells the story of two contrasting lives, assesses the Duke of Edinburgh's character and achievement, and explores the nature of his relationships with his wife, his children and their families - and with the press and public and those at court who were suspicious of him in the early days. This is a powerful, revealing and, ultimately, moving account of a long life and a remarkable royal partnership.