Originally, Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival, was supposed to come out this summer. This week, Scobie announced that it will come out in November. Some of us were concerned that Endgame was being rewritten or buried, but it turns out that Scobie wanted to write new chapters about King Charles’s coronation, which happened in May. I get that – the coronation ended up being such a non-event, which in itself is newsworthy. Anyway, you can tell that Endgame is going to be an important book in the royal narrative because the royal establishment has already launched a completely unhinged smear campaign on Scobie. Richard Fitzwilliams huffed and puffed to the Daily Mail:
Commenting on MrScobie’s announcement, royal biographer Richard Fitzwilliams said: ‘He’s writing about the royal family and he’s also Harry and Meghan’s unofficial spokesperson, some sensational details are bound to follow. However, how well sourced are they? No reputable royal source would talk to Omid Scobie. His book, co-written with Carolyn Durand, Finding Freedom, which the Sussexes were discovered to have cooperated with despite their denials, was badly written and pathetically inadequate. His new book is entitled Endgame. Some might think the title refers to the current state of the Sussexes’ affairs…Much of Endgame is not likely to be taken seriously. It is likely to be a sensational attempt to cash in on the Sussexes’ rift with the royal family. I suspect it will be trusted as much as anything from the Sussexes’ corner should be.’
[From The Daily Mail]
So that’s the talking point – that Scobie is a “Sussex cheerleader” and that the book’s narrative is completely Sussex-based. Like… if that is true (it’s not) then people will be even more likely to pick up the book! All of the other royal books crash and burn. Finding Freedom was a huge bestseller, and Spare is one of the biggest publishing successes in years. Clearly, people are interested in “the Sussex narrative.” Speaking of, Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast also got “friends of Prince William and King Charles” to throw tantrums about Scobie and Endgame:
Friends of Prince William and King Charles have predicted the royals will “keep calm and carry on” in the face of what is likely to be a highly critical new book about the royals, entitled Endgame, by Omid Scobie, the journalist whose sympathetic biography of the Sussexes Finding Freedom rocked the royal establishment.
While Finding Freedom was told almost entirely from the Sussexes’ point of view, The Daily Beast understands that the new book will not be framed by their perspective. It is also likely that the Sussexes, smarting from a dip in popularity some ascribe to their non-stop bitching about the royals, would not welcome another volume portraying them as still looking back in anger. Scobie described it in his article as “an unfiltered investigation into the current state of the Royal Family.”
One might imagine being the focus of Scobie’s new book would make the royals nervous, but a friend of Prince William told The Daily Beast that the prince had made a point of not reading the first book by Scobie and would not read the second. They added that he had not watched the Netflix series the couple made nor had he read Harry’s book Spare. “The idea that William is going to be distracted from his work by even thinking about Omid Scobie’s new book is fanciful,” the friend said. William’s office declined to comment.
A friend of the king’s took a similar line, saying the king had “seen it all before” in terms of negative books about him being published and added, “He will keep calm and carry on.” The king’s office also did not comment in response to questions from The Daily Beast about Scobie’s new book.
While the royals believe that not responding to criticism is the quickest way to get it to evaporate into the ether, Scobie is a different class of threat to anonymous tittle-tattle in the newspapers, precisely because of his close relationship with Team Sussex. The palace is unlikely, privately, to be particularly happy that he has a fresh book coming out given that Scobie and his publishers clearly expect it to make another season of headlines.
[From The Daily Beast]
LOL at the comments from William’s “friend” – William hasn’t read Spare or watched the Netflix series or read Finding Freedom, yet William and Kate have constantly reacted to everything within those projects. Anyway, you can tell that Scobie will receive the full Sussex treatment in the British media and royal media. Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace are terrified about what stories Scobie will publish, and they’re even more terrified that Scobie is more believable than their hagiographers.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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