Whitcoulls Recommends: The Governor and The Four Wives of Windsor

The Governor by Lynda la Plante. The creator of the Jane Tennison series of books, Prime Suspect, has another story about a woman working in what was typically a male dominated industry - as governor of an English prison. Helen Hewitt is in her early 30’s and appointed to the top job where she goes up against unruly prisoners, staff who don’t want her in the job, and the politics of the prison service which undermine her from the start. Her time in the job changes her perspective on the role of prisons in society and the best way to manage punishment and rehabilitation. First published in 1995 it was made into a TV series and has recently been reissued by her publisher.

The Four Wives of Windsor by Simon Vigar - a royal watcher and journalist for many years. This is a look at the four women who have had the greatest profile and, to a greater or lesser degree, influence, in the modern UK monarchy. Diana, Camilla, Catherine and Meghan each of whom came from the outside, but ended up performing pivotal roles in the evolution of the House of Windsor. For monarchists, these women are endlessly fascinating. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSTB.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
It is time to talk books, and joining me now
is Joan mackenzie, Headbook Bar at Wickles. Good morning, Hello,
Linda Laplant has a new book.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
She well, yes she does. She's back. What I will
say about this book, which is called The Governor, is
that it was first published in nineteen ninety five, and
then I think they made it into a TV series.
I vaguely remember, but it does stand the test of time,
and the publisher, as they sometimes do these days, they
do it with Kristin Hannah as well, has reassued it
for a new, I guess modern audience. Okay, but old

(00:45):
timers like me might remember that Linda first made her
name with the just outstanding book series called Prime Suspect, Yes,
which featured Jane Tennyson as a young policewoman who made
her way up the ranks, and that was made into
a TV seelen Yes, Yes, and it was real appointment
viewing on a Sunday night, Do you remember?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:05):
And I can still remember it impact that series had
on me. It was really something and Jane Tennyson's name
became firmly established as one of the I guess great
modern literary characters. So in this new or perhaps not
so new book, Helen Hewitt is another young woman out
to make her mark. She's in her early thirties. She's
working in the UK prison system and she's just been

(01:27):
promoted to the job title of governor, and soon after
that they put her in charge of a prison, which
is a highly political location for the prison authorities, and
actually what they're doing is hanging her out to dry.
But she goes in there, and she's young and fearless,
and she takes on the prisoners and the resentful staff
and ultimately the area's prison management. And of course she

(01:49):
runs into all of the things that you'd expect, misogyny,
the politics, the isolation, having to prove herself to be
better than everyone else. And it's really interesting to see
how her thoughts about punishment and incarceration and rehabilitation changed during.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
The course of the book.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
I've always loved Linda's books, and this is very on theme.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Okay, fabulous. The Four Wives of Windsor by Simon Vigar.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
He's a longtime royal watcher and he's been around long
enough to have watched the evolution of the modern monarchy
from even before Diana through to the very different institution
that it is today. And he goes behind the palace walls,
looking at the private tensions and the public battles and
all the stuff that you read about in the tabloids
and the magazines, and the shifting alliances that have shaped

(02:34):
the House of Windsor in the last forty years. And
he says that a lot of the change has been
brought about by four women, which is the wives of
Windsor of the title. And you can guess who they are.
There's Diana, there's Camilla, there's Catherine, and there's Megan. And
so much has been written about these women that if
you're a royal follower, he has some fresh insights into
the context of their times in the family. For instance,

(02:57):
Diana was the only one who came from an aristocratic family.
The others all had to get in and really learn
on the job. Queen Elizabeth was fiercely protective of the
monarchy and its traditions, and some listeners may remember the
furori that erupted after Diana's death when she refused to
fly the flag at half Master at Buckingham Palace, and

(03:18):
people thought the Queen was out of touch and disrespectful,
but there were well established traditional reasons as to why
she made that decision. But here come Diana, Camilla, Catherine
and Meghan changing everything, and it's a really interesting look
at that female and feminine and I guess in some
ways you would say with Diana, certainly the emotionally intelligent

(03:39):
approach to the monarchy which had largely been absent prior
to her.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
I know that Harry and Meghan haven't behaved well when
it comes to their family, but I look at sometimes
at the treatment of Meghan, and then I lock at
Prince Andrew or the former Prince Andrew and his behavior,
and I think, really, are we going to get so
upset about this woman compared to the other behavior that
you know, we've learned so much about that's taken place

(04:04):
in the royal family.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, no, you're not wrong. I'm just grateful reading this
that I am not part of the monarchy and I
don't have to put up with this degree of it
must be just awful.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Absolutely, Thank you so much, Jones. So that was The
Four Wives of Windsor by Simon Viga and that first
book was the reissued to the Governor by Linda Laplant.
Thank you so much for talking nextweek, see you then.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.