“Racy, outrageous and hilarious – there’s never been a Royal book like it!” – the Mail on Sunday
“My story is a unique inside view of what really went on during the most tumultuous period for the British monarchy since the abdication of Edward VIII, some 75 years previously”, writes Sarah Goodall in the introduction to THE PALCE DIARIES.
At the age of 24, having ditched her studies at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, Sarah decided that there must be more to life than being a farmer’s wife… so she set off for London.
A one-in-a-million stroke of luck saw her plucked from the London streets and straight into the Alice in Wonderland world of at St James’Palace, where she answers the (frequently-deranged) postbag for His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. It is a “temporary” job that will last more than twelve years, and will open the most private of Royal doors to her.
It all begins as a real-life fairytale. Promoted to become HRH’s assistant on Architecture, she soon crosses a significant boundary, and becomes an increasingly close personal friend (the other staff now have to call her “Madam”). But all too soon, Sarah witnesses the Prince and Princess’s marriage hitting the rocks. Early portents of doom include the frequent (and highly eccentric) visits to the Palace of British TV personality Jimmy Saville, who is acting as the Royal couple’s marriage guidance counselor…
As the Palace gossip machine swings into top gear (nearly all members of the Royal Family have been having sexual shenanigans, she learns) the atmosphere turns deeply poisonous: it’s like the court of Versailles on a bad day. Sarah’s closest friend, a favorite of the Princess and a trusted worker in the Princess’s private office at Kensington Palace, is capriciously dismissed. Then Sarah has her first heated encounter with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Suspicious of Sarah and resentful of her friendship with her future husband, Camilla arranges to have Sarah demoted back to ordinary duties. And then Diana is killed.
Sarah keeps her head down and hopes the Royal displeasure will dispel. However soon afterwards, she is summarily fired. Not even a final, traumatic encounter with Charles can save things. She is cast into the outer darkness.
Sarah suffers the double misfortune that many of her new-found friends promptly drop her. Having lived the life of princes and princesses, the workaday world is now close to unbearable. Depression hits hard. A succession of jobs, one-night-stands and food does not help. Finally, Sarah ends up selling ice cream at Sadler s Wells Theatre so she can watch ballet constantly. In this escapism, things start to make sense again. The previous twelve years take on a theatrical confection: dreamlike, frequently nightmarish, unreal. She reclaims her perspective, loses her bitterness, and finds love with a man who keeps giant rabbits.
Most importantly, she regains her ability to see the funny side of life – a humor that is conveyed all the way THE PALACE DIARIES.
