The charmed life of a royal relation

This book, whose major strength is its enormous bibliography, tells many stories.

The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves

Andrew Lownie

Harper Collins, 

490 pages, Rs 699

Lord Louis Mountbatten was a member of the British royal family. That got him many jobs which he didn’t perhaps deserve fully. In the end it also got him blown up when a bomb went off on his boat in 1979.  He didn’t deserve that either. 

But he lived a good life. The royal connection also got him many good jobs, including that of Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the East during World War II. He was just 43. 

Churchill wasn’t keen but eventually went along. He