Revisiting the Queen Camilla Chapter in Endgame

Plus thoughts on my original review one year later

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Unbelievably, it’s been almost a year since the release of Endgame by Omid Scobie. My plan this week was to compare my original review to my current thoughts on the monarchy, but then Channel 4 had to go and drop a Sunday night documentary titled, “Queen Camilla: Wicked Stepmother?. This necessitated a slight deviation, which I handled in a very normal and chill manner.

I have not watched the documentary yet and—given the less than stellar reviews from outlets like The Guardian—I may not watch it at all. I know how Camilla Parker Bowles went from the most hated woman in the U.K. to beloved…by the media. Not the public, although I’m sure there are plenty that like her well enough. No, it’s the relationship between Camilla, Charles, Mark Bolland and subsequent Private Secretaries and the British media that is fascinating to me. Even more so is how Operation PB—the nickname for the rehabilitation of Camilla’s reputation—has been, in some ways, borrowed from by the younger generations.

What Did Endgame Have to Say About Camilla

What did Omid Scobie, a former member of the Royal Rota, have to write about Camilla a year ago? How does it fit with what we know now?

Like every royal in his book, Camilla Parker Bowles is presented as a fully-formed, complex woman. Because she is. We all are. Scobie reminds us that Parker-Bowles was born into an upper-class society in the last generation where women went to finishing school and deviations from what was expected of them “were frowned upon.” Camilla once remarked that without her upbringing, royal life would have been extremely difficult.

Through a decades’ long campaign, with the help of Comms. gurus and cozying up to British media figures, Camilla figured out a way to work with the same media that sent her into hiding when her affair with Charles became public in the ‘90s. Particularly the Royal Rota press pack who, unlike other senior royals, she always stops to say hello to and give a wink when at an engagement.

Scobie also writes that, while Prince Harry has leveled plenty of criticism at his stepmother, he also sees her, “as just as much of a victim of the inner workings of a cold institution as any of his other family members.”

This is bigger than one person. This is a system that encourages every man (or woman) for themselves. And it’s like, no shit, it’s an ancient hierarchal system. But when that system is portrayed as a model family for the nation, it takes on an even more sinister tone. Perhaps Camilla could have bucked the advice of courtiers, put her foot down, chartered a different path, but that would have been so demonstrably different from her, “grin and bear it” upbringing. She was raised upper-middle class with a reverence for the institution. She’s the last person that was going to shake things up.

Ultimately Endgame’s chapter on Queen Camilla reminds us that there were a lot of comms. gurus working on Operation PB, but it would be foolish to ignore the vital role Camilla played. Perhaps that is something we should all keep in mind when considering current senior royals and how much responsibility we place at the feet of their Comms. Teams and not on the royals themselves. (myself included!)

Revisiting Endgame

As I mentioned at the top, it’s been almost a year since Endgame by Omid Scobie came out and the British media lost their goddamn minds. Similar to Prince Harry’s book, Spare, most did not have an advance copy of it.

But I did.

Which made it particularly interesting to watch. Similar to Spare, the coverage was primarily misinterpreted, vile, sensational bullshit and, from what we know about the toxic contract—particularly from my conversation with Anna Pasternak last month—I’m not confident Scobie’s book would have ever gotten a fair shot. Why? Because when he was an Honorary Royal Rep. he wasn’t reporting on Harry & Meghan the way the rest of the Rota was. He very quickly found himself on the outside of the clique and poison pens pointed in his direction.

You know totally normal reporter stuff! (s)

OG Endgame Review and My 2024 Thoughts

If you want to read it in full, here is my 2023 review of Engame:

From that review:

Scobie clearly lays out the book’s thesis in the prologue, writing:

“I fear that by continuing to ignore the ongoing constitutional corruption in the Palace’s inner sanctum and enabling a cabal of courtiers and the British media to call the shots—as well as quietly supporting those who have brought shame and humiliation to the Crown—the royal institution is risking untold damage to the Queen’s legacy.”

If anything, the past year has highlighted how constitutional corruption in the Palace’s inner sanctum has worsened—particularly with the future King and Queen—William and Catherine.