... did not deliver.

For admirers of Harry and Meghan, Finding Freedom is 354 pages of sorbet: a dishy narrative that pushes back against media attacks while tracing the couple’s connection.

Just as 1992’s Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words, by Andrew Morton, gave readers an intimate look at the royal family from the perspective of a disgruntled member of the firm, so this book repeats the trick with Diana’s younger son and his wife, Meghan Markle. What this semi-sequel lacks in novelty, it makes up for in cattiness (aimed largely – and this is the only real surprise of the book – at the woman born Kate Middleton, now known as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

... we get the pure, undiluted voice of H and M (as their staff call them). That makes this book an important contribution to the understanding of the biggest crisis in the royal family for more than 20 years. However, it is not necessarily an edifying experience, or indeed a reliable narrative. The main complaints, as far as one can tell, is that the Sussexes sometimes had to take a back seat in the royal pecking order when their proposals clashed with initiatives from Prince Charles or Prince William.

The account of Meghan’s formative years sounds like something from the Lives of the Saints hagio­graphies. Did she ever do anything unkind, ill-judged or plain wrong? Not here. It feels primarily like a book about how great Meghan is, with interstices on Harry’s trials in being the younger brother to the heir to the throne.