In recent times the British monarchy has become an 'ultimate family' of international superstars, their adventures and personalities transmitted round the globe like episodes in the world's most popular soap opera.
The process began with Queen Mary's transformation of the family into symbols of middle-class morality, but accelerated greatly with the televising of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation and the euphoric sense of a 'new Elizabethan age' about to begin in gloomy post-war Britain.
Prince Charles's Investiture in 1969 was the springboard of a major PR campaign to provide royalty with a human face and helped shape the contemporary image of the royal family as both 'special' and 'ordinary'.
First published in 1986, this work came at a time of heightened interest in the royals as it followed the establishment of Lady Diana as the 'ultimate dream princess', Diana, and arrived in the wake of Prince Andrew's wedding. John Pearson's fascinating book defines the Royal Family for the 1980s.

PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS
1 'Daylight Upon Magic'
2 Queen Mary and The Sacred Kingship
3 Mother
4 Coronation and the Magic Monarchy
PART TWO: DECLINE
5 Philip
6 Margaret
7 'Things Fall Apart'
8 The Snowdon Factor
PART THREE: RETRIEVAL
9 'God Bless the Prince of Wales'
10 The Price of Popularity
11 Divorce
12 Changing Faces
13 Prince in Waiting
14 A Megastar is Made
15 The Ultimate Family

John Pearson is the author of All the Money in the World (previously titled Painfully Rich), now a major motion picture directed by Ridley Scott film and starring Michelle Williams, Mark Wahlberg and Christopher Plumber (nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). He is also the author of The Profession of Violence, on which the Tom Hardy film Legend is based, and the follow-up, The Cult of Violence.
Born in Surrey, England in 1930, Pearson worked for Economist, The Times, and The Sunday Times, where he was the assistant of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Pearson published the definitive biography of Fleming, The Life of Ian Fleming in 1966.
Pearson has since written many more successful works of both fiction and non-fiction. Biographies remain his specialty with accomplished studies of the Sitwells, Winston Churchill and the Royal Family.