Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Quest for Queen Mary cover art

The Quest for Queen Mary

By: James Pope-Hennessy, Hugo Vickers - editor
Narrated by: Tim Bentinck, Gareth Armstrong
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Bertie: A Life of Edward VII cover art
A Royal Life cover art
Behind Closed Doors cover art
King's Counsellor cover art
Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1) cover art
The Final Curtsey cover art
Moving Target cover art
Courtesan cover art
The Friendly Air cover art
The Complete Short Stories cover art
The Light Years cover art
A Dark-Adapted Eye cover art
High Rising cover art
The Housekeeper's Tale cover art
Cakes and Ale cover art
Villa on the Riviera cover art

Summary

The highly acclaimed unexpurgated notes taken by James Pope-Hennessy for his official biography of Queen Mary, the present Queen's grandmother. Published in full for the first time and edited by much-admired royal biographer Hugo Vickers.

When James Pope-Hennessy began his work on Queen Mary's official biography, it opened the door to meetings with royalty, court members and retainers around Europe. The series of candid observations, secrets and indiscretions contained in his notes were to be kept private for 50 years. Now published in full for the first time and edited by the highly admired royal biographer Hugo Vickers, this is a riveting, often hilarious portrait of the eccentric aristocracy of a bygone age. 

Giving much greater insight into Queen Mary than the official version, and including sharply observed encounters with, among others, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the Duke of Gloucester, and a young Queen Elizabeth, The Quest for Queen Mary is set to be a classic of royal publishing.

©2018 Hugo Vickers (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critic reviews

"A scary portrait of put-upon servants and potty aristos...this is arguably the most riotously funny volume published this year." (Max Hastings, Sunday Times)

"One of the funniest, most eccentric books of the year." (Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday)

What listeners say about The Quest for Queen Mary

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    64
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    60
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    52
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Maddening foot notes!

A good book but very annoying having constant interruptions with the historical footnotes, so am returning the book unread.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Lovely and Hilarious

Not what you think. Not like a standard bio. Many narrative based accounts reflecting not only on Mary's life but aristocracy itself. An inside look at what it is to be royal. Their hilarious lack of empathy and compassion for persons and situations and their stoicism when mere mortals might crumble. Fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sheer brilliance

An absolute joy to listen to. The use of material fabulous and to have a genuine account of our current Monarch and all that have gone before her was delivered excellently, informative and most important at times hilarious.

At some middle chapter I was thinking that I cannot wait to listen to this again!

Highly recommended if you have an interest in the Royal family. Some previous knowledge advised given the amount of people covered.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The enjoyment I have with this book.

This book has been researched and is a pleasure to listen to. Thank you I have enjoyed listening.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A sense of past times.

For me the most interesting thing about this recording is that it didn't make me laugh like reading the book did. Something missing and I'm not sure what it was. Can't say or guess how I'd feel about the recording (Or the book) if I'd heard the recording first. Not that the recording is bad, everyone has gone to a great deal of trouble and it's good to have the different voices. That of the Duchess of Windsor especially. Different points are highlighted as a consequence, the Duchess's racism for example. Casual, as were the anti Semitic attitudes of her class and generation during her thirties heyday. Other stars twinkle, Prince Axel of Denmark for example, in a way they did not in the book. I did enjoy it though. There is still a strong sense of past times as well as past people. Does seem sad, to me, that the UK Royal Family is still neurotic about their German relations; come to that why are our newspapers and/or satirical magazines so keen to harp on about "phil the greek" or that they are all Krauts and similar pathetic witty remarks. Though the Duchess of Beaufort and the Duke of Gloucester still both shine. Completely bonkers the pair of them.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hilariously vivid portraits of many crazy (by their own admission) royals

A book about a book could be perhaps tedious but Hugo Vickers’ editing of a now-unread biography of Queen Mary (by James Pope-Hennessy) is an amusing, and indeed sometimes hilarious, condensation of conversations and interviews with many members of the European and Scandinavian royal families, nearly all descended from Queen Victoria. The gossip, the bitchiness, the scandalous stories, the descriptions of palaces fabulous and in decline, would have definitely amused Queen Victoria. It certainly amused me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great insight

This book contains lots of information, is well written and read. Very happy I bought it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well curated

I thought how clever it was for Pope Hennessy to make excellent incisive and contemporaneous notes of the interviews. Reflections in 1958 of the first half of the 20th Century in European aristocracy . Well done Hugo Vickers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • M
  • 29-03-23

Story of the Story

You definitely need to read/listen to Queen Mary’s official autobiography before starting this book. Enjoyed listening to Pope-Hennessy’s journey through the different cultures, characters and houses, his attention to detail creates a vivid image in the readers mind, (though his description of people, might be questionable in today’s society). Thought the research and how he captured all the material required to make the book was worth waiting to be opened and was interesting to have some updates from Vickers but if picky would of liked more, will definitely come back and listen again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Worst book ever in history

Omg this is THE most silly, pointless, rambling, boring, incoherent book in history. Irritating. Awful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!