GRACE by Robert Lacey
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‘Racy, crammed with gossip and anecdotes’
Cosmopolitan
From the moment Grace Kelly stepped before the movie camera in 1950, the world was captivated by this stunningly beautiful yet elusive actress. After a string of passionate affairs with leading film stars such as Clark Gable, Ray Milland and William Holden, Grace met and married her Prince. Half marriage of convenience, half genuine love match, their tumultuous relationship formed the backdrop for a romance no Hollywood writer could have scripted.
Robert Lacey reveals details about Grace’s tragic, early death. He recounts the misadventures of the Grimaldi children since their mother’s death — the paternity suits against Prince Albert, Princess Stephanie’s children born out of wedlock, the marriages and romances of Princess Caroline.
Peopled with an extraordinary cast of characters, Grace is a rich and riveting story. Robert Lacey is the first author to penetrate the storybook façade. Through hundreds of interviews with Grace’s family and friends, he weaves the tale of a complex and surprisingly conflicted woman who created a dream for herself and lived it.
This enhanced edition from Apostrophe Books also provides access to 103 photographs, video, links to newsreel footage and trailers to 12 of Grace Kelly’s films.
Robert Lacey says: “Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco, was sheer magic. She was an enchanting confection of charm, vulnerability and exhilarating blonde ambition, and I am delighted that the modern magic of digital technology has made it possible for Apostrophe Books to update Grace, my 1994 story of her life and loves, with direct links to a unique portfolio of historic newsreels, movie trailers and a brilliant collection of fresh images that have been specially researched and assembled for this first e-book edition. My aim in Grace, the book, was to bring this inspiring and extraordinary woman alive with words on the page. Now here are the moving pictures that can bring her beauty and vitality alive on your own screen!”
British Pathé newsreel footage:
There are links to many more film clips in both the ebook and paperbook copies of Grace.
Latest reviews:
“The definitive biography” Vanity Fair
“Kelly was a living legend, but Lacey makes her real without really diminishing her effect and effectiveness … Lacey does more than recite known facts. He digs deeper, and his picture is one far more realistic than the impossibly wholesome depiction than Hollywood wanted us to accept” Booklist
“A definitive biography with a shrewd final verdict.” New York Times Book Review
“Highly readable” Kirkus Reviews
“Seductive” Publishers Weekly
“(a) serious work that…is rich in anecdote yet captures the broad story” Library Journal
“Lacey sets forth a believable analysis of Kelly’s libertine side and of her onscreen persona.” People
“Revealing…backed up by extensive research” The Day
“Convincing” LA Times
“Lacey is an intelligent and highly competent biographer and, against the odds, has got out a book that will, surely, be the last word on its subject.” Riviera Reporter
Robert Lacey is a British historian noted for his original research, which gets him close to – and often living alongside – his subjects. He is the author of numerous international bestsellers.
After writing his first works of historical biography, Robert wrote Majesty, his pioneering biography of Queen Elizabeth II. Published in 1977, Majesty remains acknowledged as the definitive study of British monarchy – a subject on which Robert continues to write and lecture around the world, appearing regularly on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ and on CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’. In 2002, the Golden Jubilee Year of Queen Elizabeth II, he published Royal (Monarch in America), which was hailed by Andrew Roberts in London’s Sunday Telegraph as “compulsively readable” and by Martin Amis in The New Yorker as “definitive”. In 2012 Robert brought readers up to date with A Brief Life Of The Queen, a slim volume successfully intended to stand out for its brevity at the time of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
The Kingdom, a study of Saudi Arabia published in 1981, is similarly acknowledged as required reading for businessmen, diplomats and students all over the world. To research The Kingdom, Robert took his family to live for eighteen months beside the Red Sea in Jeddah. Going out into the desert, this was when Robert earned his title as the ‘method actor’ of contemporary biographers. In the aftermath of 9/11, Robert returned to Saudi Arabia to research the Islamic Awakening there for a new book Inside The Kingdom. Much acclaimed for its balanced insights and fluency, this 2009 publication was an account of Saudi life and history from 1979 to 2009, told through the personal experience and memories of Saudis.
Following a string of varied bestsellers, Robert returned to his first love, history, with his trilogy, Great Tales from English History – the first narrative history of England (and to some extent Britain) written in and for the 21st century.
Robert is presently writing Model Woman: Eileen Ford and the Styling of Global Fashion.
You can find more information about Robert at www.robertlacey.com
