![Charm offensive: How the Mountbattens became the 20th Century’s mightiest power couple](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/vxy259ii/production/0b26a5fc40e6c7111dfca5ed67e5d1cae880e4b9-2560x1075.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=max&q=80&w=1280)
Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten are that trite old maxim made flesh: it’s not what you know that’s important — it’s who you know. And the Mountbattens knew them all. Queens and kings (well, they were related to most of them); industrialist giants and political heavyweights; entertainment kingpins and career socialites; wartime generals and all time villains (even Rasputin reared his bearded head at one point). Forget about soft power — this was the hard stuff. And in his illuminating biography of this extraordinary couple, Andrew Lownie shows us how the Mountbattens deployed it to dazzling — and often devastating — effect.
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