Kate

"You do have to wade through this book to get to the love story of William and Kate but actually this book is far more useful as an historical reference to Kate Middleton’s past. The author has gone right back to the 19th century to trace Kate’s roots and reveal that Kate’s mother had come from really very working-class stock. She has coal-mining ancestry in Durham. Her father came from a wealthy textile family up in Leeds. So he and his brother inherited a lot of money and that was interesting because that explained quite a lot of Kate’s background. For example, all the children, James, Pippa and Kate, went to private schools and no one could understand how that happened because, yes, the Middletons’ business, Party Pieces, was doing well but surely not well enough to send three children to private school? No, I don’t think the royal family are concerned at all about Kate’s background. I think they are able to see the merits of marrying a commoner rather than landed gentry or aristocracy. And actually I think that could do the royal family a lot of good because it is bringing someone into the fold who has a background of coming through working-class roots and self-improvement. She is in touch with middle England. I met Kate at the palace on the day of the engagement and that was really the only formal meeting I have ever had with her. All the other encounters have been socially and at nightclubs where Kate has always been very guarded and very careful about what she has said. She has always been polite and terribly nice. I suppose the reason that she has so much credibility in the royal family is because she has never spoken. When we met her on the engagement day she was absolutely charming and I was struck by how confident she was. She was meeting a select number of the world’s press for the very first time, which is enough to inspire fear in most people. But she really took everything in her stride and she just seemed very at ease. She told me she was nervous but she didn’t look nervous. She was thoroughly charming and very regal, just in the way that she held herself and conducted herself and I was really impressed."