Early Reviewers

Based on a seldom-told true story, this novel is perfect for everyone who is fascinated by Britain’s royal family. Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, The King’s Speech, and Call the Midwife, a behind the scenes look into the nurseries of little princes and the foibles of big princes. In 1897, a young cockney nursemaid takes her first train ride, leaving London for the lush and sprawling Sandringham Estate, private home to Britain’s royal family. Hired by the Duke and Duchess of York to help rear their royal children, Charlotte Bill is about to become privy to all the secrets families hide, and caught between the upstairs and downstairs worlds. After discovering and exposing the head nanny’s sadistic treatment of David and Bertie, both future kings of England, Charlotte quickly becomes a permanent, irreplaceable fixture in the royal family during a time of great upheaval in Britain. She devotes herself entirely to the traumatized boys and gives them the unconditional love they desperately need. But it is her relationship with Prince John, the youngest child, that changes her the most. Autistic and epileptic, Johnnie is hidden from the public and isolated from his own family. Charlotte is his touchstone and only connection to the world, and she loves him enough to sacrifice everything.