Narrative Non-fiction · Hardback

Haakon & Maud II

Norwegian title: Folket

Tor Bomann-Larsen

The second independent volume of this biography deals with the dramatic highpoint in the story of Norway's first royals - Prince Carl, son King Fredrik VIII of Denmark, and Princess Maud, daughter of King Edward VII and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The volume starts with the newly weds leaving England and moving into the flat that Maud's mother-in-law, Queen Louise, has prepared for them in Copenhagen. It finishes, nine years later, with them moving into an uninhabited palace in a kingdom where they have neither family nor friends. But the population welcomes them with open arms and celebrations. The reader is drawn into a story where illness, loss and longing and family conflicts are played out against a backdrop of civil unrest and power politics, where the father of a young family is suddenly offered the role of saviour to a nation on the brink of war. For the first time, the story of 1905 – the year that the Kingdom of Norway became an independent nation - is told from the perspective of the young royals.

We learn why Norway chose Prince Carl and Princess Maud, but also why they chose Norway - for themselves and for their only child.

If Bomann-Larsen manages to fulfil the promise of the first volume, this will be a biography of international standing.AFTENPOSTEN

WINNER OF THE 2004 BRAGE PRIZE FOR BEST NON-FICTION.