Many years ago, on December 11, 1936, my mother took me Christmas shopping in Robinson's Los Angeles store. I was six years old. Christmas carols were being wafted from radio speakers when suddenly the music stopped and there was total silence. People all over the store stopped whatever they were doing as though they were playing "statues." Then a man's melodious voice issued forth to a rapt audience. It was Edward VIII renouncing the throne for the woman he loved. My six year old heart was thrilled. Half a century later the coach for me turned into a pumpkin. Shaw's "blackest sheep of all" is the Duke of Windsor.

Karl Shaw's "Royal Babylon" is a fascinating read, but I was less interested in the constant sexual excesses endemic in the royal houses all over Europe than in the author's iconoclastic remarks about broadly admired royal figures who had feet of clay. Make no mistake: I gasped at the unbelievable sexual excesses, and you will, too, but Shaw's discussions of the Duke of Windsor, Queen Mary, and Tsar Nicholas II among others, I found particularly revealing.

THE DUKE OF WINDSOR
Edward never seemed to get it through his head that he owed the British government something in return for his immensely priviledged position. You wonder what on earth he was taught growing up, but to serve was not one of them. It is amazing that he found such a soul mate in Wallis Simpson, who believed, just as he did, in taking with no giving. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor spent the next thirty years in migrating from one party to the next. They were both Nazi sympathizers, and the Duke, in meeting Hitler, clicked his heels and gave the Nazi salute in such a frenzied preformance that even the Nazi aides who were present were embarrassed.

This is the former king of England grovelling before Hitler. It boggles the mind. This is the former king of England who showered the Duchess with cartloads of jewels, all paid for by the British taxpayers. This is the former king of England who felt he had no obligations to England and who led a life of unremitting vacuity.

NICHOLAS II- THE LAST TSAR
Nicholas as tsar was a disaster from day one. Indecisive, weak, vascillating, and rather stupid, be was under the thumb of his German wife, Alexandra. It is hard to even envision his world, in which peasants prostrated themselves when his train passed. One can imagine the toadying around his person as well. He did have a beautiful family: four lovely girls and the hemophiliac tsarivich Alexei. But the boy's illness was kept a state secret so that the insinuation of the debauchee Rasputin in to the family was totally miunderstood. Rasputin could calm the boy and relieve his suffering but in no way was this treatment a direct channel from God. Rasputin was nothing if not an opportunist. Alexandra's infatuation with the smelly peasant was a major reason for the rise of the Bolshevics. But Nicholas was doing his part to bring down the House of Romanov. He ruthlessly slaughtered people whom his army declared subversives leaving the survivors starving and without shelter.

And he hit the bottle. And drugs. Cocaine and heroine were easily obtained and used for all kinds of illnesses, the fact of addiction seemed to be unknown. Alexandra doused herself with these drugs as well for her myriad ailments. In two years, Nicholas's face changed so much he was barely recognizable. You can see for yourself in the pictures of him: sunken eyes, black circles under them. He was so spaced out much of the time that courtiers couldn't reach him: he was often in a drugged stupor.

Nobody condones the murder of the tsar and his family. But the tsar and the tsarina laid the groundwork. Ineptitude, Rasputin, and a total isolation from their subjects whom they hardly knew, brought them down. A tragedy among many tragedies.

QUEEN MARY
Queen Mary seemed to be a pillar of rectitude. She looked like a pillar, statuesque, a Juno, if you will. Her antagonism towards Wallis Simpson, both before and after the death of George V, seemed just right. She didn't want that common, vulgar woman anywhere near her son let alone a futue queen. She echoed absolutely the sentiments of her subjects. Rectitude. That was Queen Mary, everybody thought.

In examining Mary closely, as Shaw does in "Royal Babylon" her feet of clay become very apparent. This was a woman who had five sons and one daughter. She apparently lived on Mount Olympus as far as they were concerned. She simply could not emote. It is a wonder she could even keep them straight. Her youngest son, Prince John, was an epileptic and had learning disabilities. What his parents did was sweep him under the rug by isolating him from the rest of the family in a separate house. It's unlikely they ever visited him. The press knew nothing about him, and when he died at fourteen from an epileptic fit, his poor little bubble of an existence was submerged and quickly forgotten.

Queen Mary was a kleptomaniac, and if she couldn't socially blackmail a hostess into giving her some treasure in their home she coveted, she would simply steal choice items from department stores. Her debts were paid under the table All hush-hush.

But Mary's non-communication with her children was perhaps her biggest failing. How could a prince grow up- the prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII- without being taught that he was a servant to the country not vice versa? That he had to give something back. That his immensely priviledged existence demanded a re-payment.His academic education was also extremeely poor.

There are many other delicious biographical tidbits in "Royal Babylon." The book is an eye-opener, full of meaty facts you'll no doubt enjoy, as I did! Like the real lowdown about "Dickie" Mountbatten. And it's scary that three of the most inept monarchs ever occupied important thrones at the same time: Nicholas II in Russia; the loutish Kaiser Wilhelm II in Germany and the even less than mediocre George V in England. It's all in "Babylon" and it's a great read.

I loved this book, I couldn't put it down. Whether it is factual or not...well that can be debated by more worthy scholars that this reviewer, but as pure entertainment on this subject it is without peer. At university, I assure you I didn't learn this in ancient regime...unfortunitely; I might have stayed awake. This book did make me want to check some of the stories and some of them are only conjecture, but still they are amazing non the less. I would highly recommend to anyone who likes royal gossip. Reading this book, is like eating a sinful dessert, you know you shouldn't be eating it, but do you really care?

I really enjoyed this book because you get to realized a couple of things.Number One,history can be fun and you can still enjoy without digging too deep.Number two,once in a while i enjoy a light reading that will give me insight to better understand situations in other countries.Mr Shaw delivers a very good book that,in my case,never made me wanna put the book down.Altough we might sound a little "gossipy", the information is accurate and well researched.If you want a light reading this is your book,but dont be surprised with Mr Shaw's accuracy.My favorite parts were those that deal with the Romanovs and The English monarchs.Great book!