PRINCE PHILIP

The idea of persuading royalty to be the biographer of royalty is a singularly happy one, for it combines both the glamor of palace gossip and the casualness of old acquaintance. Those readers who vaguely think of royal families as having nothing in particular to do will be astonished by the career of the consort of the Queen of England and by the amount of work it is, even to help rule an Empire in these days of democracy. Prince Philip's early life alternated between semi-impoverished self-reliance and visits to the rulers of various countries, until he went to school in England, entered the British navy, and, after world War II, persuaded the various governments involved to permit him to give up his Greek rank and become a British commoner. The author, who was a Greek princess before her marriage to the King of Yugoslavia, has known Prince Philip all his life and is able to provide a great deal of behind-the-scenes information on his romance with Princess Elizabeth, as well as on his family and early years. Her book is well-organized and written in an easy-to-read style; and her subject emerges as a remarkable man, with an energy, determination, and drive which we in America associate with great industrialists. Snob appeal here.