You can count on Omid Scobie to be an unreliable narrator
The author’s new palace potboiler, Endgame, is full of inaccuracies and misrepresentations, says royal biographer Hugo Vickers – but, then, he has built his reputation on getting things wrong…
As a longtime scourge of inaccuracies in The Crown, I feel it is my moral duty to issue a warning about misleading royal drivel whenever it comes my way. Which is why I say under no circumstances should you stoop to buy, least of all read, Endgame by Omid Scobie.
For those somehow unscathed by the ongoing publicity onslaught this week – which included an appearance by Scobie on today’s edition of This Morning in which he attempted to defend the book – Endgame is the latest salvo from the author who gave us Finding Freedom, the myth-building 2020 biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Scobie, having made his name unearthing “the unknown details of Harry and Meghan’s life together”, has returned to chart the “devastating” impact that Megxit has had on the royal family as an institution, as well as on key individuals, notably, the King.
Endgame’s overarching contention is that the monarchy finds itself in mortal danger, that King Charles is a mere “stopgap” monarch, and that Prince William “craves” the throne. And the prose is as desperate and divisive as you’d expect. The Dutch version of the book has already been pulped after its translation reputedly unmasked two members of the royal household whom Meghan suggested had aired “concerns” about her unborn son’s skin colour – which is as careless as it is cruel. But, then, Endgame is full of inaccuracies, misrepresentations and casually snide asides.
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