THE MOUNTBATTENS: The Last Royal Success Story

This is the unabridged, arch but respectful biography of three Mountbattens; Prince Louis, who married Queen Victoria's granddaughter and became First Sea Lord under Churchill during World War I; Dickie (Lord Mountbatten), the only British Supreme Commander (in Southeast Asia) during World War II, who presided over the dissolution of India; and His Royal Highness Prince Philip. The Mountbattens were never wealthy. But Prince Louis married into the Royal family; Dickie married $30,000,000; and Prince Philip did well also, though not financially. The two elder Mouutbattens served the Royal Navy nearly a hundred years between them. Prince Louis had to resign as First Sea Lord during WWI; his son tried to regain his father's title; and Prince Philip's hopes along these lines were scuttled when he married Princess Elizabeth.... Alden Hatch sometimes succumbs to trembling if not overwrought admiration--the journalist's temptation and the biographer's trap.