A fascinating look at the British Royal Family as they were perceived in the 1980s.

In recent times the British monarchy has become an 'ultimate family' of international superstars, their adventures and personalities transmitted round the globe like episodes in the world's most popular soap opera.

The process began with Queen Mary's transformation of the family into symbols of middle-class morality, but accelerated greatly with the televising of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation and the euphoric sense of a 'new Elizabethan age' about to begin in gloomy post-war Britain.

Prince Charles's Investiture in 1969 was the springboard of a major PR campaign to provide royalty with a human face and helped shape the contemporary image of the royal family as both 'special' and 'ordinary'.

First published in 1986, this work came at a time of heightened interest in the royals as it followed the establishment of Lady Diana as the 'ultimate dream princess', Diana, and arrived in the wake of Prince Andrew's wedding. John Pearson's fascinating book defines the Royal Family for the 1980s.

John Pearson was born in 1930, and educated at King's College School, Wimbledon and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read history. He has worked on various newspapers, including the Economist, The Times, and The Sunday Times where for a time he wrote the Atticus column.

After the success of his Life of Ian Fleming, he decamped with wife and family to Rome, where he lived for some years. Mr Pearson returned to England to research and write the life and times of the Kray brothers in The Profession of Violence and has since written many more successful works of both fiction and non-fiction. Biographies remain his specialty with accomplished studies of the Sitwells, Winston Churchill and the Royal Family following his earlier successes.