{"id":40218,"date":"2025-08-02T15:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40218\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T15:00:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T15:00:13","slug":"this-royal-biography-is-clutching-at-straws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40218\/","title":{"rendered":"This royal biography is clutching at straws"},"content":{"rendered":"

I appreciate it is difficult to come up with an original premise for a book, especially when it concerns the much written-about royals. But can it really be right to suggest that Princess Margaret<\/a> was \u201cleft with foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) from the Queen Mother\u2019s drinking\u201d?<\/p>\n

The condition is caused by a developing baby\u2019s exposure to alcohol in the womb, and can give the child distinctive facial features and cause difficulties with learning, impulse control and managing emotions.<\/p>\n

For her new book, Princess Margaret and the Curse, Pulitzer Prize-nominated biographer Meryle Secrest has re-examined the royal\u2019s personality and personal struggles and drawn the conclusion that she may have suffered from an \u201cinvisible disability\u201d brought on by foetal alcohol syndrome.<\/p>\n

\"Princess<\/p>\n

Princess Margaret smokes a cigarette as she attends the Windsor Horse Show in 1978 – Anwar Hussein\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

She points out that the late Queen\u2019s sister,<\/a> who died in 2002 aged 72, had stunted growth, struggled to learn how to write and suffered mood swings as well as painful migraines.<\/p>\n

But isn\u2019t this yet another case of trying to medicalise everyday problems? Margaret had none of the more obvious symptoms of FAS, such as smooth lip philtrum, small eyes, and a flattened mid face.Yes, she was small, at 5 ft 1, but her mother was only an inch taller.<\/p>\n

FAS sufferers have difficulties with social skills, but the princess was the life and soul of any party. They also have difficulty with fine motor skills and yet Margaret was an accomplished pianist.<\/p>\n

Sure, she was impulsive and would \u201cblurt out the truth\u201d<\/a> \u2013 but the same can probably be said of most royals and aristocrats of her era!<\/p>\n

While the Queen Mother did enjoy \u201ca tipple\u201d later in life,<\/a> as attested by her official biographer William Shawcross, there is no evidence she was an alcoholic \u2013 least of all when she gave birth to her daughters in 1926 and 1930.<\/p>\n

Indeed, in a 1925 letter to her husband, cited by Secrest, she reveals that she has lost her appetite for wine in pregnancy, joking: \u201cIt will be a tragedy if I never recover my drinking powers.\u201d Despite enjoying gin and Dubonnet, wine, port and martinis, she lived to 101. Very heavy drinkers don\u2019t tend to become centenarians!<\/p>\n

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I appreciate it is difficult to come up with an original premise for a book, especially when it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,35594,134,35591,35592,35590,35593],"class_list":{"0":"post-40218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-cause-difficulties","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-foetal-alcohol-syndrome","14":"tag-meryle-secrest","15":"tag-princess-margaret","16":"tag-the-queen-mother"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}