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'The Heir Apparent' asks existential questions about Britain and its beloved crown
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Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. When a reporter takes their beat and turns it into fiction, something interesting happens. You get to see what really excites them in their reporting when they have the freedom to do away with, you know, some of the more boring or drier aspects of a true story. Rebecca Armitage has spent some time reporting on the British royal family for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. And her novel the Heir Apparent is about a woman who finds herself, well, the heir apparent of British royalty. And in this interview with NPR's Miles Parks, you can hear Armitage poking at really existential questions about the royal family. What are they really? For what purpose do they hold and do we need them? That's ahead.
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Okay, I want to level with you here. I am not really a royals person. I've watched maybe a half season of the Crown. I barely know who Meghan Markle is, but I do love a good love story. And while the book we're about to talk about is technically a novel about English royalty, it's also about a question that comes up no matter who you are, what would you give up for love? Your job? The place you live? How about the chance to be the queen of England? It's this tension that's at the heart of the new novel, the Heir Apparent. The heroine, is Lexi Villiers. She's a member of the British royal family who leaves that life behind to become a doctor in Tasmania.
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Her mother dies in a mysterious boat accident when Lexi is 17, and that event changes her from trying to be the most perfect aristocratic girl in the world to suddenly rethinking everything. And she moves to the other side of the world, and she begins a new life in Australia, on the verge.
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Of completing her residency. Tragedy strikes her family again, and suddenly Lexi is heir apparent to the English throne. Author Rebecca Armitage, who spent years reporting on royal families for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, told me she was fascinated by the social experiment that is the modern monarchy.
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If you were King Henry viii, your role is pretty clear because you're the head of government, you're a tyrant, you can do whatever you want. You're England. But these days, there are some slight constitutional responsibilities, but it's largely just symbolic. And you are a tourism draw card. And so there must come a point where you have all this attention and all this pressure on you. But. But what really is the purpose of your life beyond being a symbol of a nation? You know, I. I would never want to be royal myself. I was just really interested in the state of royalty, where you're told that you're better than everyone. Like, they try to say that that's not how they feel, but that is the state of royalty is being told that you are above everyone else. But also, what is your purpose in life? I just think that would do something really interesting to your brain.
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Well, and also felt like the experience for Lexi is so present in this book that she is a woman. And I think there, I felt kind of naive reading it because I was reading it and I was telling my wife, I was like, my God, like, there is so much eating disorder stuff happening both with her and with her mother. I mean, she talks about when she does end up leaving the royal family. That is like one of the first things she realizes that she kind of eat in a way that she wants to or in a way that is not. Doesn't feel so controlled. Was that something that was present as you were thinking about writing this book, that theme specifically?
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Yeah, because, I mean, every character in the book has a real life counterpart, so she's very loosely inspired by Harry. But I deliberately made her a woman because I wanted to explore what it's like to have a female body that is on public display. And obviously, we know that Diana really struggled under that spotlight. She lost, you know, a huge amount of weight. She struggled with eating disorders for much of her youth purely because of the intensity of that spotlight and the tabloid focus on their bodies. I really wanted to explore, you know, girls are told from birth, we watch Disney movies, we're told that there's no greater thing than being a princess. But what is the actual reality of that? And I think the intense pressure to be physically perfect must just be absolutely crushing at times.
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And I mean, I just want to just make it clear for listeners. This book is also just very, very fun. Like, there are these themes that are explored in all these different ways, but in some ways it almost feels like a normal rom com in a lot of the flashbacks because we have Lexi not in the royal life, kind of in Australia, having this fling with her co worker in one instance and kind of also having this long budding romance with Jack, who a winemaker in Australia. And then that's kind of juxtaposed against this fairy tale life that she jumps back into. But it does explore also the question of healthy romantic relationships. And I guess I wonder whether that was something you were thinking about. It seems to me like Lexi is almost struggling with whether it is possible at all to have a healthy romantic relationship under these circumstances.
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I think the thing with Lexi is at the beginning of the book, she has a lot of trouble. Trauma, unacknowledged trauma. I really think she's got PTSD at the beginning of the novel and she has this terrible fear of unconditional love because the only person she's experienced that from is her mother. And then she lost her mother. So she. She feels like she can't ever reach for it again because the pain of losing it is too much. So in the novel, yeah, there is a friends to lovers arc. So she has this best friend who's an Australian who just looks up to her and likes her as a person and doesn't care about what she comes with. He just genuinely likes her as a human being. And that is utterly terrifying to her. So I really just wanted to explore. When you have this crazy life where you are a symbol, where you are under the microscope, is it possible to have a love that is pure and unconditional? Or do you need to make what is essentially a business arrangement between another person who can cope with the pressures of fame, who is in that world, who may not be your love match, but they would be a perfect business partner.
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Before I let you go, Rebecca, I want to ask this book. To me, it shows that so many people in the royal family have experienced so much pain almost specifically because of this experience. And I wonder about whether there should be a royal family at all. I mean, is this model outdated in modern society?
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Yeah, look, I think it's a really interesting question and I, I'm fascinated to see what happens in the next 50 years because I think, you know, long standing institutions really have to justify their place in society and people are asking questions about inherited power. So I'll be fascinated to see what happens. You know, I think if you look at the royal houses in Scandinavia, it's very common. If you go to the Netherlands to see a princess riding a bike down the street, they call them bicycle monarchies for that reason, because they're very low key. They try to keep it low cost. So those houses have evolved. The House of Windsor has not. So I'll be fascinated to see what Prince William does because I think he's indicated that he wants to maybe pursue something a bit closer to a bicycle monarchy, so that might help with its survival. But you know, I don't think there's any guarantees that there will be a constitutional role for a monarchy 20, 50 years from now.
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Rebecca Armitage her fantastic debut novel, the Heir Apparent is out now. Thank you so much for talking with us.
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Thank you. It's been so lovely.
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And just a reminder that signing up for book of the day plus is a great way to support NPR's book coverage and public media. And you'll get to listen to every episode sponsor free. So please go find out more@plus.NPR.org BookOfTheDay.
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