Royal Children

The words of the future King George VI echoed down through the generations, to be spoken again by his great-grandson, Prince William. "I don't want to be a king. I want to be a policeman," added the Prince.But as his grandfather, Prince Philip admits, "However hard you try, it's almost impossible to bring them up as ordinary children." The "training" starts the moment they are born. It was in the nurseries of Sandringham, Windsor, Balmoral, and Buckingham Palace that the characters of generations of royal children were formed, and it was in those early years that the foundations for the troubled lives of Queen Elizabeth, Charles, Diana, Andrew, and Fergie were laid.From Princess Elizabeth, who was never allowed to get dirty, to Prince Charles who, after the age of eight, was never again embraced by his mother, to Princes Harry and William, who must cope with the very public breakdown of their parents' marriage, royal children have lived with privileges and rigors unknown to any other child.Previously unpublished photographs from the private collections of the royal family and the Windsor archives illustrate this fascinating portrait of a world where royal children were surrounded by extraordinary luxury but expected to behave at all times like miniature adults - a world that was rich and strange and unlikely ever to be seen again. Ingrid Seward's unprecedented access to the royal family - including exclusive interviews with its members as well as those who knew them in childhood, offers rare insight into the royal children - from the Queen to her grandchildren - and how their upbringing has contributed to today's turmoil.