While I enjoy historical fiction (mostly), I can never bring myself to watch historical fiction/dramas/movies on screen. I'm just too nitpicky on the details. It's not fun when it involves real people, events, etc.

So I've only seen maybe one episode of The Crown (though I watched several 'what The Crown got wrong' videos on YouTube). I enjoyed this book a lot and found it informative on fiction vs fact, as well as raising points of the issues of misogyny and narrative framing.

Thank you NetGalley and Pen and Sword for giving me early access to this book! All opinions are my own.

If you are a fan of the Crown, and want an episode by episode comparison to real life, then this is the book for you. I unfortunately was hoping for a more generic overview of how the show and real life compared, so it was a miss for me. But this would be perfect to read after you watched each episode to learn the extra historical facts. 3⭐️

I enjoyed The Crown even though I knew that it was a dramatisation of the Royal Family. This book clarifies the real life events and timelines and helps to provide context to some of the events and clarify timelines. It was a really good read.

This is a nicely detailed book that describes scenes from The Crown and provides the historical accuracy to them, (whether the show was true or not.)

This is an invaluable book for fans of the show.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

This was such an interesting read. Comparing the show to the facts was a great insight into where artistic liberties were taken and the truths behind them.
Cleverly written and enjoyable. Not too dry.

An interesting look at the real British Royal Family as one of the world's most recognizable institutions, with centuries of history, political influence, and cultural symbolism versus *The Crown* is a dramatized Netflix series chronicling the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, portraying key events in the lives of the Royal Family and their interactions with the British government and global politics. It balances historical accuracy with creative liberties.

Both the Royal Family and *The Crown* captivate audiences, albeit for different reasons. The monarchy symbolizes tradition and history, while *The Crown* offers an engaging, dramatized peek behind palace doors. Together, they fuel ongoing global fascination with Britain’s royals, ensuring their legacy endures in reality and fiction.

This fab book reveals what was true and what is fiction in Netflix's The Crown series. I learned so much and had such fun reading about one of my fav cable shows. A must-read for every fan of the series!

I only made it through the first season or 2 of The Crown, as I am a tiresome, picky historical purist and the many inaccuracies in the show drove me crazy. This quick and dirty breakdown of the truth vs. the facts would be handy for tedious people like myself who want to know just exactly how inaccurate the series in before they risk their sanity by watching it; and also for normal people who don’t mind inaccuracies but who want to at least know the true facts for information’s sake.

I am someone who finds the royal family fascinating and so will read everything I can that features royalty, which normally is historical fiction so I enjoyed this non fiction book that showcased the royal family and the popular Netflix drama The Crown side by side to debunk fiction and state how factual the accounts actually were.
I really enjoyed it, actually a lot more than I expected to and found it so interesting.

For seven glorious years between 2016 and 2023, Peter Morgan's The Crown reigned on Netflix. Across six series and sixty episodes, audiences got to see the young Princess Elizabeth of the late Forties (played by the then rising star, Claire Foy) grow into the middle-aged Queen Elizabeth II of the Sixties and Seventies (Olivia Colman) before finally taking us up to the lioness in winter, as the series concluded with the elderly monarch (Imelda Staunton) attending the second marriage of her eldest son, Prince Charles in 2005.
Three very different actresses giving three very different excellent portraits of the same woman. But the story of The Crown was not just the story of the Queen and the Windsors, but the story of the UK itself. The series touched on many aspects of national (an, indeed, global) life ranging from the London Smog of the Fifties, Princess Margaret's unhappy marriage, the Apollo 11 Moon landings, the Aberfan disaster, Lord Mountbatten's murder, the rise of Thatcherism, the Cambridge Spy Ring and a lot - perhaps a bit too much - about the final days of Princess Diana.
Some of it was better than others, but generally it's a good show. If you've not seen it yet, check it out. This book is essentially a guide to every one of the show's sixty episodes, with special attention being paid to the levels of historical accuracy achieved throughout. For while far from easy to dismiss entirely, it's fair to say quite a lot of dramatic licence was taken.
For example, did King George V really routinely eat breakfast with a parrot on his shoulder? Apparently, yes. Did Princess Anne narrowly escape being kidnapped? Famously,, yes, although you wouldn't know it as The Crown bizarrely never mentions this at all. Dd Princess Diana really appear as a ghost to a grief-stricken Prince Charles? Obviously not. Did Margaret Thatcher really threaten to call an unnecessary General Election in a bid to prevent her own downfall? No. Dis intruder, Michael Fagan really access the Queen's private bed chamber? Yes. Was Prince Phillip really obsessed by the Moon landings? Again, no. And so on..
Ultimately, this is an excellent companion to a fascinating but not always reliable TV series.

Catherine Curzon, The Royal Family vs 'The Crown' Separating Fact from Fiction, Pen & Sword | Pen & Sword History, January 2025.

Thank you, NetGalley and Pen & Sword, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Catherine Curzon parts company with the usual lively writing style of Pen & Sword publications in this almost dry account of the popular Netflix drama, “The Crown,” and its mixed adherence to a factual account. Although relieved by some levity, Curzon’s commitment to comparing drama and authenticity relies on an account that leaves little time for frivolity. In reading this interpretation, although “The Crown” had eons of time for frivolity and melodrama, history did not. Or did it on occasion? Although the style is critical and is not as accessible as the usual Pen & Sword publication, it follows the same standards in providing well researched material. This is a robust comparison of reality and the account of the historical, social, and personal developments given in the 6-part series, featuring themes and events; characters and characterisation; locations; style and costumes.

The format is excellent – The Crown version of events is followed by the facts as Curzon knows and researched them. Where there is a question, or it is difficult to determine the facts Curzon acknowledges this. Unfortunately for “The Crown” there is abundant information that undermines the factual nature of the series. One major criticism made by Curzon is the timelines that often become muddied and demonstrably incorrect in the series – events and characters’ presence are often impossible because they happened at a different time, or the characters wee somewhere else at the time in which they are portrayed in the series. Sometimes a character is depicted taking an action that belongs to another. And so, it goes on – there is an abundance of evidence that underpins Curzon’s case.

However. This is a fact-finding mission, and in this respect, it is a grand history as it relates to the Windsors and those impacted by the world of the British crown. In its meticulous attention to getting the facts right, we are presented with an impressive history of the time. And to be fair to Curzon, this is what she aims to do, no more. But, looking at the series from a wider perspective there are so many questions I would have liked answered. What lies behind the most egregious of the factual errors? Can some be excused and explained because of the need for dramatic impact and it having inconsequential outcomes to take this licence? What of the expense of ensuring that some characters are not stand ins for others? Introducing a new character in a film is quite different from writing the correct figure into a historical novel – the immense expensive to find another actor to fill a part that in its most critical sense means little, may have been considered unnecessary. What impact did the current royal, social and political environment have on the way the themes were drawn in the series? Perhaps none of these questions matter, and the value of Curzon’s factual account is beyond these questions anyway. However, I would have liked some attention given to the questions I raise. Further, although she raises is the way in which female characters often give way to male characters’ stories and feelings, there is little analysis of why. I would have liked some analysis of the series and its, at times, seemingly cursory concern for facts.

There is a lengthy bibliography of secondary works and relevant photographs. The way in which Curzon finishes the book is a poignant reminder of at least one fact that “The Crown” stressed throughout, Queen Elizabeth’s commitment to duty.

The Royal Family vs 'The Crown': Separating Fact from Fiction by new to me historian author C. Curzon is a beautiful, enlightening, touching, very informative book that I read cover to cover in one sitting.
Beautiful from start till the last page, 4.5 stars.
Blurb: The Royal Family vs 'The Crown' turns the spotlight on the glittering N. series and lays bare what’s fact and what is very definitely fiction. Season by season, episode by episode, The Royal Family vs 'The Crown' digs deep into history to examine the plots, the trivia and the characters who have stepped out of the throne room and into the living room, telling the real stories behind the drama that has thrilled and scandalised audiences. From the abdication of a king to Princess Diana's interview, the marriage of Charles and Camilla and everything in between, this is your guide to the true stories behind the streaming series.