I have recently had the bad fortune to read a forthcoming biography of the Princess of Wales. Its greatest fault isn’t just that it’s poorly written, incurious or unrevealing, but that it came out at exactly the wrong time. What would, under normal circumstances, have been a harmless enough puff book now becomes irrelevant the date it’s published.
Ever since the Princess made her heartbreakingly vulnerable and deeply sad announcement that she was suffering from cancer, the whole existential stability of the Royal Family has been shaken. Catherine was always meant to be the one who was able to convey an air of normality and stability in a way that her husband, for instance, never could, and the revelations about her health have been shattering.
We must be grateful that the news that she will be taking part in the King’s Birthday Parade this weekend suggests that there has been a significant improvement in her condition, but the announcement comes tempered with provisos aplenty.
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