An entertaining and informative book that separates facts from fiction, episode by episode, and season by season.

The Crown has been praised by critics for its acting, directing, writing, cinematography, and production value. While the bare bones of the show are generally accurate, a lot has been changed, left out, or created for the sake of dramatic/artistic licence.

In "The Crown": The first season of "The Crown" details a relationship between the divorced Peter Townsend and Princess Margaret. Elizabeth formally forbids Margaret from marrying Townsend because of his divorce.

In real life: It was way more complicated. While Margaret was initially forbidden to marry him (by Parliament, not the queen), she could have given up her spot in the line of royal succession to marry whoever she wanted. But Margaret ended the relationship and remained in the line of succession.

In "The Crown," Prince Philip asks Elizabeth if he can forgo kneeling to her at her upcoming coronation and is denied. He kneels — bitterly.

In real life: He didn't refuse, and it's unlikely that there was any drama whatsoever. He knelt for his wife at her coronation in 1953. Prince Philip knew exactly what he was getting into when he married Queen Elizabeth, as he was born royal to boot, also he was a Royal Navy officer, so he knew and respected customs, protocols, and traditions.

In "The Crown": A troubled man named Michael Fagan breaks into the queen's chamber in Buckingham Palace. Instead of running, she talks to him and listens to his concerns over the state of the country.

In real life: Michael Fagan did break into Buckingham Palace—twice.But he didn't really have a clear reason, and when he made it into Queen Elizabeth's bedroom, she immediately called for help.

In "The Crown": The Duke of Windsor, the former Edward VIII, apologises to Queen Elizabeth for abdicating the throne — which eventually led to her becoming queen — as she goes to see him on his deathbed.

In real life: There's no evidence that the Duke of Windsor made a big apology on his deathbed.

Best read alongside watching the Crown- it goes episode by episode into what's real, what's exaggerated, and what didn't happen. I appreciate Catherine's straightforward writing style - it's easy to pick up and read without being too academic. If you've read other books about Queen Elizabeth's reign and the royal family, this is probably a skip for you because you likely already know the material that's covered. But if you don't know much, this is a very approachable book to getting the overview of what happened to her and her family during her reign.

This book offers a season-by-season, episode-by-episode analysis of the hit Netflix series, separating fact from fiction. Exploring key historical events from the reign of George VI to the 21st century, this guide reveals the true stories behind the drama that has captivated and sometimes scandalized viewers worldwide.

This book answered the question I had the accuracy of the series. It’s a great companion to consult when watching. It’s easy to read and a good analysis.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

4.5 stars-

I had to grab this one when it was offered for review, as Miss Grace and I finished watching the full series together about 5 months ago. And when I say watching, I mean 'homeschool watching', which meant watch for 10 minutes (if lucky) and then have to pause the show, so I could be questioned ala Google, as to whether whatever just occurred was accurate and was I alive, or her grandparents during said period. Which normally then evolved into a British culture/ Commonwealth Dominion vs US history/culture discussion. SIGH. If you homeschool, you know EXACTLY what I mean, which is why it took us sooooo long to finish it. But if you don't have teacher mom who is a history nerd, then book is much better than Google, with taking the reader through the different episodes and stating what was fact and what was "creatively licensed". A MUST for any fan of the show, and for those wanting to sort out what was the truth.

The Royal Family vs 'The Crown' by Catherine Curzon is a book that compares the real events that inspired episodes of Netflix's hit show The Crown. Curzon's book breaks down each season by episode and covers what events were more dramatized and what really happened in the actual time period that the events occurred in.

It should come as no surprise that the events in the show were altered quite a bit to meet TV standards as well as to make them more dramatic, or to meet up with altered timelines by the show run, but Curzon's concise writing gives life even to the actual events that show they didn't need to be further embellished.

If you are a fan of The Crown, or even just the modern Royal Family, this book is definitely something you should consider adding to your library. Its a brief read, but it contains a ton of interesting tidbits and facts.

I would like to than Pen & Sword and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Royal Family vs 'The Crown'

I generally don't have a huge interest in the Royal family though I do remember landmark events like William & Kate's wedding and Princess Diana's car crash but I did really enjoy the netflix series 'The Crown'. This book is clever in that it brings us through the series of the Cron with episode summaries followed by details of what was accurate in the episode, which events did happen but not quite as portrayed or in the timeline shown and which sections were completely made up. I found it very interesting though it was slightly repetitive so to keep my interest I did read it over quite a few weeks. If you are a big fan of The Crown then this would be a fun read.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley & Pen & Sword History for an eARC ♥️

I'll be the first to admit it - I'm utterly obsessed with Netflix's The Crown. But my fascination with the British royal family started long before the show premiered. It all began with my love for Princess Diana. There was something about her kindness, compassion, and generosity that captivated me. I was devastated when she passed away, and I've been fascinated by her life and legacy ever since.
As I started reading more about Princess Diana, I became increasingly interested in the British royal family as a whole. I devoured books, articles, and documentaries about the monarchy, learning about its history, traditions, and inner workings. And when The Crown premiered, I was hooked. The show's attention to detail, its stunning costumes and sets, and its compelling characters all drew me in.♥️
But as much as I love The Crown, I've always wondered what's real and what's just drama and i want to write
a huge thank you to Catherine Curzon, whose book has been an invaluable resource in my quest for knowledge. Her meticulous research and engaging writing style have helped me uncover so many new facts and insights about the royal family. 😍

This book is awesome for fans of The Crown! I loved the comparison of real-life events to how the show portrayed it. It's cool to know how historically accurate the show was!

This book was interesting in that it tried to separate fact from fiction (and I think, try to disprove The Crown). In trying so hard to disprove that The Crown is not an honest depiction, really the only thing it had done was prove that the timeline was a little adjusted for artistic license. It was interesting, but not earth shattering. Quick and easy read.

Catherine Curzon does a great job in sharing the true stories of the Royal Family versus what was shown in the Crown. It was written well and had that facts that I was looking for. It was great to read this after watching the Crown.

While I enjoy historical fiction (mostly), I can never bring myself to watch historical fiction/dramas/movies on screen. I'm just too nitpicky on the details. It's not fun when it involves real people, events, etc.

So I've only seen maybe one episode of The Crown (though I watched several 'what The Crown got wrong' videos on YouTube). I enjoyed this book a lot and found it informative on fiction vs fact, as well as raising points of the issues of misogyny and narrative framing.

Thank you NetGalley and Pen and Sword for giving me early access to this book! All opinions are my own.

If you are a fan of the Crown, and want an episode by episode comparison to real life, then this is the book for you. I unfortunately was hoping for a more generic overview of how the show and real life compared, so it was a miss for me. But this would be perfect to read after you watched each episode to learn the extra historical facts. 3⭐️

I enjoyed The Crown even though I knew that it was a dramatisation of the Royal Family. This book clarifies the real life events and timelines and helps to provide context to some of the events and clarify timelines. It was a really good read.

This was such an interesting read. Comparing the show to the facts was a great insight into where artistic liberties were taken and the truths behind them.
Cleverly written and enjoyable. Not too dry.

An interesting look at the real British Royal Family as one of the world's most recognizable institutions, with centuries of history, political influence, and cultural symbolism versus *The Crown* is a dramatized Netflix series chronicling the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, portraying key events in the lives of the Royal Family and their interactions with the British government and global politics. It balances historical accuracy with creative liberties.

Both the Royal Family and *The Crown* captivate audiences, albeit for different reasons. The monarchy symbolizes tradition and history, while *The Crown* offers an engaging, dramatized peek behind palace doors. Together, they fuel ongoing global fascination with Britain’s royals, ensuring their legacy endures in reality and fiction.

This fab book reveals what was true and what is fiction in Netflix's The Crown series. I learned so much and had such fun reading about one of my fav cable shows. A must-read for every fan of the series!

I only made it through the first season or 2 of The Crown, as I am a tiresome, picky historical purist and the many inaccuracies in the show drove me crazy. This quick and dirty breakdown of the truth vs. the facts would be handy for tedious people like myself who want to know just exactly how inaccurate the series in before they risk their sanity by watching it; and also for normal people who don’t mind inaccuracies but who want to at least know the true facts for information’s sake.

I am someone who finds the royal family fascinating and so will read everything I can that features royalty, which normally is historical fiction so I enjoyed this non fiction book that showcased the royal family and the popular Netflix drama The Crown side by side to debunk fiction and state how factual the accounts actually were.
I really enjoyed it, actually a lot more than I expected to and found it so interesting.

For seven glorious years between 2016 and 2023, Peter Morgan's The Crown reigned on Netflix. Across six series and sixty episodes, audiences got to see the young Princess Elizabeth of the late Forties (played by the then rising star, Claire Foy) grow into the middle-aged Queen Elizabeth II of the Sixties and Seventies (Olivia Colman) before finally taking us up to the lioness in winter, as the series concluded with the elderly monarch (Imelda Staunton) attending the second marriage of her eldest son, Prince Charles in 2005.
Three very different actresses giving three very different excellent portraits of the same woman. But the story of The Crown was not just the story of the Queen and the Windsors, but the story of the UK itself. The series touched on many aspects of national (an, indeed, global) life ranging from the London Smog of the Fifties, Princess Margaret's unhappy marriage, the Apollo 11 Moon landings, the Aberfan disaster, Lord Mountbatten's murder, the rise of Thatcherism, the Cambridge Spy Ring and a lot - perhaps a bit too much - about the final days of Princess Diana.
Some of it was better than others, but generally it's a good show. If you've not seen it yet, check it out. This book is essentially a guide to every one of the show's sixty episodes, with special attention being paid to the levels of historical accuracy achieved throughout. For while far from easy to dismiss entirely, it's fair to say quite a lot of dramatic licence was taken.
For example, did King George V really routinely eat breakfast with a parrot on his shoulder? Apparently, yes. Did Princess Anne narrowly escape being kidnapped? Famously,, yes, although you wouldn't know it as The Crown bizarrely never mentions this at all. Dd Princess Diana really appear as a ghost to a grief-stricken Prince Charles? Obviously not. Did Margaret Thatcher really threaten to call an unnecessary General Election in a bid to prevent her own downfall? No. Dis intruder, Michael Fagan really access the Queen's private bed chamber? Yes. Was Prince Phillip really obsessed by the Moon landings? Again, no. And so on..
Ultimately, this is an excellent companion to a fascinating but not always reliable TV series.

Catherine Curzon, The Royal Family vs 'The Crown' Separating Fact from Fiction, Pen & Sword | Pen & Sword History, January 2025.

Thank you, NetGalley and Pen & Sword, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Catherine Curzon parts company with the usual lively writing style of Pen & Sword publications in this almost dry account of the popular Netflix drama, “The Crown,” and its mixed adherence to a factual account. Although relieved by some levity, Curzon’s commitment to comparing drama and authenticity relies on an account that leaves little time for frivolity. In reading this interpretation, although “The Crown” had eons of time for frivolity and melodrama, history did not. Or did it on occasion? Although the style is critical and is not as accessible as the usual Pen & Sword publication, it follows the same standards in providing well researched material. This is a robust comparison of reality and the account of the historical, social, and personal developments given in the 6-part series, featuring themes and events; characters and characterisation; locations; style and costumes.

The format is excellent – The Crown version of events is followed by the facts as Curzon knows and researched them. Where there is a question, or it is difficult to determine the facts Curzon acknowledges this. Unfortunately for “The Crown” there is abundant information that undermines the factual nature of the series. One major criticism made by Curzon is the timelines that often become muddied and demonstrably incorrect in the series – events and characters’ presence are often impossible because they happened at a different time, or the characters wee somewhere else at the time in which they are portrayed in the series. Sometimes a character is depicted taking an action that belongs to another. And so, it goes on – there is an abundance of evidence that underpins Curzon’s case.

However. This is a fact-finding mission, and in this respect, it is a grand history as it relates to the Windsors and those impacted by the world of the British crown. In its meticulous attention to getting the facts right, we are presented with an impressive history of the time. And to be fair to Curzon, this is what she aims to do, no more. But, looking at the series from a wider perspective there are so many questions I would have liked answered. What lies behind the most egregious of the factual errors? Can some be excused and explained because of the need for dramatic impact and it having inconsequential outcomes to take this licence? What of the expense of ensuring that some characters are not stand ins for others? Introducing a new character in a film is quite different from writing the correct figure into a historical novel – the immense expensive to find another actor to fill a part that in its most critical sense means little, may have been considered unnecessary. What impact did the current royal, social and political environment have on the way the themes were drawn in the series? Perhaps none of these questions matter, and the value of Curzon’s factual account is beyond these questions anyway. However, I would have liked some attention given to the questions I raise. Further, although she raises is the way in which female characters often give way to male characters’ stories and feelings, there is little analysis of why. I would have liked some analysis of the series and its, at times, seemingly cursory concern for facts.

There is a lengthy bibliography of secondary works and relevant photographs. The way in which Curzon finishes the book is a poignant reminder of at least one fact that “The Crown” stressed throughout, Queen Elizabeth’s commitment to duty.