Charm offensive: How the Mountbattens became the 20th Century’s mightiest power couple

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.