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Andrew Lownie warns 'history is growing censored' with more royal documents locked than before
Bestselling biographer and agent Andrew Lownie warns that “history is growing censored” with royal records apparently becoming closed after being open for many years.
He spoke to The Bookseller about the changing nature of biographies following the news that his biography of Prince Andrew, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York (HarperCollins), topped the charts this week.
Lownie has experienced many battles for information for his biographies on public figures, such as his efforts to make the Mountbatten diaries public, which left him with a bill of £400,000.
Next up he is writing a biography of Prince Philip, which is also generating media interest, though the book is not yet attached to a publisher. “I’ve already put in numerous Freedom of Information requests and made notes from private archives, notably abroad, relating to him," Lownie told The Bookseller.
The historian, who has submitted “hundreds” of FOIs throughout his career, warned that many more official records are being locked away than before. “The UK has real problems with official secrecy and transparency. Indeed, Freedom of Information is going backwards with many files hitherto open being closed. I’ve had personal experience of this with royal files from the 1930s, open for the last 20 years, which have now been closed though widely copied and quoted. This is not just a problem with files relating to the Royal Family and intelligence but domestic political, crime and foreign affairs. America, which used to be more open, is also going backwards under Trump. The result is our history is being censored.”
Lownie said of Entitled’s sales success, his first book with HarperCollins: “It’s very exciting. My last two books were Sunday Times top 10 bestsellers but there wasn’t the worldwide interest and media frenzy as there has been with Entitled.”
Lownie believes the book is partly a hit because of “interest in these particular royals because there has been no proper book on either” and that “so many royal books are thin gruel written by journalists from cuts and I like to think this book by a serious historian based on four years research and lots of named and important sources means it carries weight”.
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On the revised edition next year, which the Daily Mail said would incorporate new sources previously afraid to speak: “There will be a paperback edition in due course which will incorporate new source material where relevant.” HarperCollins also confirmed it would revise the current edition, removing several paragraphs, reportedly due to Melania Trump’s threat to sue Hunter Biden over the latter’s allegation of how she met Donald Trump.
The style of biographies themselves is changing, Lownie conceded:“Of course, it is constantly evolving but I think we will always remain interested in human behaviour and its impact on those around one. I still believe individuals shape history rather more than are carried along by events. My sort of cradle-to-grave biographies are being replaced by slice of life though I don’t think you can understand the adult without knowing the child. That is especially true of the Duke and Duchess of York.”
Lownie has been an agent for 40 years this month, since first cutting his teeth at Curtis Brown as an assistant in the 1980s, and does not want to write full-time. “I enjoy agenting and aim to continue with existing authors but take on fewer new ones.”
He also offered the following advice for aspiring biographers: “Do your research and then remember you are telling a story so you will probably not use most of it.”
