Customer Reviews

LIFE The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton: Expanded, Commemorative Edition (Life (Life Books))

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I preordered this book with great expectations that at least 90% of it would contain pictures from the wedding. To my chagrin, this was not so at all. I think you should include this "little" fact in your description of the book. I am sure that most of the people who ordered this book will be equally disappointed. I may yet return it because it was certainly NOT what I wanted.

As an avid Royal watcher I was very excited to see that Life had put together a Royal Wedding. Although Life is a well respected media outlet I was greatly disappointed in the book I received. For one, the book is 'thin' for a commerative eddition. Secondly there were about 5 pictures of the wedding, making majority of the book about Will & Kate's life leading up to the wedding. If you want a nice collector's edition on this historically epic event I would strongly suggest the commerative additions of Newsweek, US magazine (one of the best out!!), & TIME magazine. LOTS of wedding photos! Also, their family history & of course their university days. More tastefully done. Bottom line. LIFE is a disappointment & I will be returning my copy.

I was expecting a book ON the wedding itself. There was certainly enough going on to fill a book. Instead, 3/4 of the book is cut and paste from previous publications specifically, The Royals & The Royal Wedding. What's UP with that?

I would have rated this a no-star if I could...

If you knew me, the fact that I'm even considering returning this book would shock you. Actually I'm shocking myself. . .

My interest in the British Monarchy began as a teenager in the seventies when Prince Charles was the world's most eligible bachelor. For the past thirty years I've collected British royal memorabilia as well as amassing over two hundred books on royals from Queen Victoria through the current family.

But I was especially excited about this book....LIFE's "The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton: Expanded, Commemorative Edition" because my sister and I had been in London during Royal Wedding Week. Both Good Morning America and BBC1 included us in their segments about American royal watchers going to London, plus they aired video snippets of my collection. Therefore, I chose this book because I knew it would have superb photos from the wedding itself, as well as pictures from London's pre-wedding festivities and preparations. So confident was I in the quality of Life's publications, I ordered two--the second one intended as a gift to my sister to encapsulate our "memory of a lifetime."

The books arrived and as I lifted one from the box my initial reaction was 'Hmm, this dust jacket seems a bit large.' It was as ill-fitting as the suit jacket of a person who recently lost thirty pounds. Okay, I thought, maybe I can wrap it tighter. No biggie I suppose. Removing the second book I saw a mental flash of minimum wage workers hurriedly slapping dust jackets on recently-bound, bare little books, all rolling down an assembly line in the middle of the night after the wedding.

Never mind all that, I was thrilled with having the book in my hand and within minutes I was curled up in a comfortable chair. The first photograph was a beautiful, frontispiece shot of William and Kate re-entering the sanctuary after signing the register in St Edward's Chapel. The next two pages--the title and table of contents--had full-page photos as well. Pages 6 and 7 were the Introduction with two more wedding pictures, albeit much smaller but still wonderful shots of the royal bride and groom.

There ended wedding photographs until Page 112!

Pages 8 through 95 were broken up into various sections, beginning with thirty-seven, photo-filled pages of Prince William's childhood, Diana and the boys, his gap year in Chile, a few from St Andrews, and couple from his military days.

Then LIFE takes us back through prior royals, titling this section: "Meet The Windsors." Following this section are twenty-six pages dedicated to Kate's childhood, college, and her family. . .fourteen pages of William and Kate's courtship, and twelve pages covering the engagement.

Chapter VI (Page 93) is titled: "The Lady Says Yes", and I thought YIPPEE...we're finally getting to the WEDDING. Several pages later--and appearing as if an after-thought--I flipping past ten pages of prior royal weddings...weddings such as George V and Queen Mary's, Victoria and Albert, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon to George VI, Elizabeth II to Philip, and of course Diana and Charles. Oddly, publisher also included a photo of Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, a full-page photo of Grace Kelly marrying Prince Rainier--thus becoming Princess Grace of Monaco...and a picture from the 1938 wedding procession of Safinaz Zulfikar to Farouk of Egypt.

Egypt?

FINALLY...Page 112 and the long-awaited wedding day photographs of William and Kate. Yahooo!

Enjoy them while they last, Sheree, because fifteen quick pages later: The END.

For this book to be titled: "The Royal WEDDING of PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE MIDDLETON" then boasting "Expanded Commemorative Edition"....and finally to use as its cover shot an enlarged photo of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge leaving Westminster Abbey as husband and wife--he in his perfectly tailored red uniform jacket and sash; she in her exquisite gown with its antique lace and wearing the "Halo" tiara borrowed from her now mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth II--for this particular book to simply pepper the beginning and end with twenty-two measly pages of William and Kate on their wedding day and then calling it "The Royal Wedding..." is a bit of a stretch. Not to mention misleading.

At this point, having said all that, I'll now step down from what resembles a soapbox and say:

This book is perfect for people not familiar with the British Monarchy, prior royal weddings, or William and Kate's earlier years. Unfortunately, neophyte royal-watchers may also feel a pang of disappointment like I did, after discovering only twenty-two pages of LIFE's William and Kate "wedding book" are actually dedicated to the spectacular event on April 29, 2011.

The title is "The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton," so I thought the book would be about the wedding. Except for a few pages, it isn't: it's pictures of Will and Kate's childhood and ancestors. That's interesting TOO, but I wanted a book that was JUST about the wedding. If I'd known what it was actually like, I never would have bought it.

I give it two stars instead of one because this is partly my fault for pre-ordering before there was a description, and if I was looking for a book about each of their family histories and how they came together, I think it was pretty okay (though the writing was awkward and unengaging).

The book is 128 pages in length, with "The Big Day" coverage beginning on page 112. Text printing on many pages is slightly blurred.

in anticipation (and impatience) of receiving my pre-order of andrew morton's book on the wedding, i saw this magazine/book (i will henceforth refer to it as a book) at the store and picked it up. i am not disappointed!

there is lovely coverage of various historical aspects, not only of william and catherine, but of the royal family as well as catherine's family, accompanied by some fantastic photography (there is a wonderful photo of elizabeth II that i had never seen before). there is the requisite information on both william and catherine, accompanied by many photos we have already seen of them, and a few i had not.

my only gripe comes from the wedding coverage. there were 17 pages of wedding photos and text, which, given the grandiousity of the day, seemed a little shy of what i was expecting. the iconic balcony kiss images were mostly absent, excepting one small image on one half of one page.

that being said, i find the entirety of the book (overall) to be of great quality and a wonderful piece of memorabilia.

Beautifully done. I have it on my coffee table and many a guest have commented on how lovely the photos are. It is a wonderful momento of a beautiful event.

I returned my copy of the soft cover version to the bookstore that went on sale before the wedding because I discovered that it is the same but without the updated wedding photos in this book, of which there are 32 including the front and back cover. This book is geared more to the lives of the William and Catherine with a brief royal wedding historical synopsis, and I bought it because of Life's reputation. I wasn't left wanting more as some have stated in their reviews because I purchased the wonderful BBC DVD of the wedding, and there is only so much of that one can enjoy. I also knew what this book would be about before I purchased it.

However, the disappointing part for me is a slight wavy ripple at the top and bottom of each page reminiscent of a bargain book but with heavier paper. Maybe this only happened to my book, and maybe they hurried it whilst it was still wet or something. Its only a little irritating.

The quality of the photos are quite nice, and its beautifully designed with a readable, larger typeface than most publications these days. I prefer the hardcover edition of anything like this, and, under the dustcover, has a blue paper covering (no cloth) with gold typeface on the spine. I'm not disappointed otherwise, and am quite happy with Amazon's price. I'll live with the slight wavy ripple.

what a great book.like mother like son.... what a stunner. discription of this book was so true and I received it in timely fashion. a welcome addition to my collection.