the island of borneo has in its north the state of Sarawak. In the Nineteenth century, james Brooke, an ex-East India company man, sailed to the coast, and aided the Sultan of brunei to put down a rebellion. Appointed to rule the area he quelled, Brooke soon made himself an independant ruler of Sarawak, and established a dynasty that lasted until 1947. This is the story of the last generation of Brookes who rued there, and concentrates on the last ranee, Sylvia, a daughter of the Esher family, who married into the ruling house.

Sylvia and her daughters were a steady source of entertainment to the British and American publics in the Interwar period, and their antics did little to advance the cause of monarchy as an adequate form of governmet in the modern world. "The Ranee", as she preferred to style herself, was a figure in the London scene, and made no secret of her desire to conquer Hollywood. While a competen writer with four novels, a play, and two autobiographies to her crdit, she was far more of a personality than a a prominent figure. As a monarch, she would ocasionally give some airing of progressive ideas, but never got them carried out, and was used to using the country's revenues for her private income, as did her husband.

Philip Eade has given the material full justice, and provides a most entertaing and informative read. To give the flavour of the woman's life, and activities, i can do no better than quote one of the chapter titles: "By Jove what a wonderful fellow; but he's nuts." ( )

an amazing story of cupidity, stupidity and general incompetence, essentially showing that the hereditary principle is no way to run a government, and being rich, upper class and above all English does not equip one to rule over a country ,,, ( )

An exhaustive biography of a woman who grew up on the fringes of Queen Victoria's court in an extremely odd family. She marries into an even odder one, the Brookes, who have been the White Rajahs of Sarawak on the northern side of Borneo. The Ranee and her husband spend part of the year in England, part in Sarawak. In later years Sylvia, who has ambitions as a writer, tours the US as well. Mother to three daughters, but no son, Sylvia spends some time plotting to overthrow the ordained succession from her husbands nephew to their eldest daughter's son. However WW II and the Japanese invasion intervene. After the war Rajah Vyner is persuaded to cede his nation to the British Crown. It eventually became part of Malaysia. Sylvia comes across as a conflicted woman, with little self-discipline or grasp of larger issues.

Note to self: I don't like biographies.

I didn't finish reading it, because biographies are just lists of things that happen to a person, and I find that tedious. Sylvia is a fascinating character, but I wanted more information about Sarawak and its culture, and what the natives thought of Sylvia. I eventually got bored and stopped reading.

This book focuses mainly on Sylvia Brooke both before and after her marriage to Sir Vyner Brooke.
Before this book I had never heard of the nation of Sarawak, or had known that for about 100 years it had been ruled by a British family in what was knows as the White Rajah.

I found this book to be fascinating, very informative and engaging. I really felt like I got a good feel for who many of these people were, they weren't just flat pieces of information but real fleshed out characters that came alive while reading about them.

The book didn't always follow a linear time line, jumping around every once in awhile to finish covering a particular story line and then jumping back to continue with the history. This didn't bother me as much as make this feel more like a story instead of a historical account, it rather seemed to fit the characters as much as the almost fantasy like life they led.

If I had any complaints it is not with the writing of this book but with the people the author was writing about. They all seemed, shallow, petty, sick and useless. And yet so many of them had power over the lives of so many. I kept waiting for some sort of sanity to be forced upon their lives and it just never happened. What this did show me is that our fascination with useless celebrities, such as our current batch of “reality” TV shows and stars is nothing new the only difference is now they don't (as far as I know) have any influence over world governments.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. ( )