James Nicoll Reviews

1976’s King and Joker is the first volume in Peter Dickinson’s Princess Louise alternate history duology.

Britain’s Princess Louise takes a closer look at her family (and its closest retainer) seated around the breakfast table. She comes to an appalling realization.

Miss Anona ​“Nonny” Fellowes is at the table as the queen’s private secretary. A minor by-play between King Victor II, Queen ​“Bella” Isabella, and Nonny reveals to Louise something she had previously overlooked: Nonny is her father’s mistress.

Confirmation follows. Not only is Nonny the king’s mistress, but she has been so for a very long time. Additionally, the queen is fully aware of the arrangement and approves. In fact, the wording of the royal wedding vows was carefully chosen to allow the implication that the king was marrying both Bella and Nonny.

Louise is soon distracted from the dreadful revelation that her parents have a complicated private life. Someone on staff is a practical joker, using their insider knowledge to carry out a series of pranks. It’s intolerable cheek, particularly when the royals are trying to cut back and looking for staff to fire.

What were at first minor japes (replacing a meal with living toad) become more daring (ordering an assortment of grand pianos delivered to Buckingham Palace). Then the jokes take on a much darker tone. Louise’s bedroom is invaded and defaced. Is there no line the prankster will not cross?

The murdered corpse of McGiven — a palace security officer who is a dead ringer for the king — suggests that there is not. The bomb that soon follows confirms that there isn’t.

~oOo~

I remember thinking at the time that this novel was considerably more adult than I expected from Dickinson. Murder for younger readers, sure, but the polygamy, lesbianism, incessant sexual harassment, rampant bastardy, etc. were surprises. Blame having only read Dickinson’s YA novels.

Some of the dynamic between Victor II, Queen Isabella, and Fellowes might remind readers of the whole Charles, Diana, and Camila triangle. Pure coincidence: Charles and Diana didn’t marry until 1981, and they didn’t even meet until the year after this novel was published.

In this version of history, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, did not die of the flu. He took the throne as King Victor I. This has had almost no effect on world history. World Wars I and II happened on schedule, played out pretty much as they did in our world, and the events that followed are much as they were in our history. Hard cheese for the Great Man theory, at least applied to the royal family.

While the world is the same, this is a different royal family. These royals do their best to present a visibly bourgeois façade. The king has legitimate medical training and Louise attends a regular school. Under the mask of regular folk pretending to be royals for the sake of tourism, is the very real face of a family that has enjoyed power, prestige, and a delightful lack of consequences for a very long time and intends to keep on doing do.

Much of the plot is driven by the king and his two wives’ desire to manage the family public image. Facts that would distress the Great British Public must never come out, even if this greatly complicates the investigation into the assassination attempt. The king is convinced that everything he does is justified or at least excusable; readers likely will not.

While I am not sure the final revelations completely hang together — just how many people with a grudge against the royal family are employed by the royal family¹? — the tale up to that point is engaging told. It helps immensely that it’s likeable Louise who is the viewpoint protagonist, not her less endearing parents.

King and Joker is available here (Open Road Media), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

I did not find King and Joker at Bookshop UK.

1: And why is it only the men with a grudge who act out? There are women who have grounds to complain.