THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF PETER TOWNSEND, THE MAN CONSIDERED TO BE THE GREAT LOVE OF PRINCESS MARGARET'S LIFE, EQUERRY TO KING GEORGE VI AND HERO OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN.
‘A Royal fairy tale’ Sunday Telegraph
‘One of the saddest love stories of modern times’ The Scotsman
'Exquisitely told' Daily Mail
‘One afternoon, at Windsor Castle, when everyone had gone to London for some ceremony, we talked, in the red drawing-room, for hours – about ourselves. It was then that we made the mutual discovery of how much we meant to one another. She listened, without uttering a word, as I told her, very quietly, of my feelings. Then she simply said: “That is exactly how I feel, too.” It was, to us both, an immensely gladdening disclosure, but one which sorely troubled us.’
The romance between Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend in the 1950s rocked the British Establishment, pulled at the heartstrings of a nation and brought sorrow to two intensely human individuals.
In Time and Chance, Peter Townsend tells his side of the story in intensely personal terms, and places the episode within the whole context of his full and varied life, a story which includes great heroism in World War II as well as his part in one of the most publicised love stories of the twentieth century.
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‘Peter Townsend was a dashing war hero’ Anne Glenconner
‘Brilliantly sincere and eminently moving’ Edinburgh Evening News
‘A war hero – dashing and distinguished’ New York Times
‘Townsend was always considered to be the great love of Princess Margaret’s life’ Vanity Fair
‘There is much frankness and honesty, much modesty and common sense’ Economist
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Peter Townsend was a professional airman, and one who adored his work. When World War II came, he proved himself a brilliant fighter pilot who was as effective at planning the battles of others as he was at fighting his own.
A distinguished career in the post-war air force seemed his destiny until, in February 1944, it was decided to widen the range from which the royal equerries were selected.
Group Captain Townsend, desperately in need of a rest from flying, was put forward for the job. His assignment was for three months. In the event it lasted for eight years, destroyed his marriage and his career and changed the course of his life forever.
In Time and Chance, Peter Townsend describes his life in the royal household in vivid detail, taking in his admiration and affection for the King and Queen, the quirks and qualities of his colleagues, the comradeship, the jokes and jollities, the occasional disasters, the pompous and the absurd.
Above all, he describes his feelings for Princess Margaret with honesty and dignity. It is a sad, perhaps even tragic story – the love between two sincere and warm-hearted people in conflict with the demands of the Establishment.
Townsend does not hesitate to apportion blame where he feels it is merited but he writes without bitterness or self-pity as an intense period of his life is viewed through the lens of a subsequent long and happy marriage.
This is a fascinating and moving book written by a man whose sincerity and decency shine through on every page.
