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At least eight hardcover books were published in commemoration of the wedding. Of these, the "rare" Invitation to a Royal Wedding is probably the best since it focuses on all aspects of the spectacle and pageantry of the day and best captures the feeling of actually being there. (This book can be found daily on ebay, and if I had one dollar for every listing I've seen that describes the book as "rare" I could have flown round-trip to London on the Concorde and stayed at the Savoy.) A close runner-up in this category is the Eaton Press book which has wonderful shots of people in the crowds, but its narrative does not cover the wedding itself as thoroughly as Invitation to a Royal Wedding. Moreover, it is hard to find and expensive when you do find it ($35-$100), whereas Invitation can be had for as little as $5.00. Gordon Honeycomb's Royal Wedding has the best account of Lady Diana Spencer's descent from the Royal mistresses of the Stuarts of any of the books of this period, and he is a superb writer with excellent insight into the couple and the monarchy.
Numerous soft cover booklets and special issues of magazines were published both before and after the wedding in Britain, Canada, and Australia, but it is unlikely that an exact number can ever be established since many of these items were not acquired or cataloged by libraries. My own collection contains about twenty of these souvenir booklets and special issues of magazines from Britain, Canada, and Australia. Their contents vary from being photo albums with captions to mini books with scholarly essays on the future of the monarchy with articles by serious historians like Elizabeth Longford and Antonia Frasier, which was the case with The Times' magazine on the Royal Wedding. And special issues of magazines published overseas like New Idea or the Australian Women's Weekly give a fascinating glimpse into that country's relationship with the monarchy, as well its popular culture, since women's magazines from Australia are seldom imported to the US.
How useful are they? Well, just when you think they all look alike and you don't need any more publications on the Royal Wedding, another one comes along with pictures you haven't seen elsewhere (one had a stunning glamour shot of Lady Dale Tryon that made me wonder why on earth Prince Charles had picked Camilla over her), or useful items like the entire text of the infamous "Whatever Love Is" interview. Several of them are especially useful to collectors because they feature advertisements for or substantial articles about souvenirs, including good photos and prices of specific items manufactured for the wedding. A particularly interesting example is The Illustrated London News, which was obviously aimed at the upscale consumer market since it featured ads for the collection of Garrards', the royal jeweler, with beautifully crafted items in silver and gold that sold for 400-5000 pounds, as well as the Halcyon Days enamel collection that retailed for a more modest 15 to 250 pounds. Though it is pretty unlikely you'll find them for sale through ebay or an internet memorabilia dealer, at least such ads and articles provide knowledge that they do exist and you'll have some idea of their original value if you do get the opportunity to buy them so you'll know whether or not you're paying a reasonable price.
A few books took a satirical view of the wedding. Not the Royal Wedding was produced by the television program Not the Nine O' Clock News, and it poked fun at the surfeit of books on the market, as well as the wedding and the monarchy. Born to Be Queen was the book publication of a Private Eye magazine serial that depicted Prince Charles as a lecherous man with a mistress who had a hyphenated last name (their sources were amazingly well informed). And while at first glance the ChasDi Bumper Fun Book looks like a children's activity book, it soon become apparent that its puzzles and coloring sheets were meant to lampoon the courtship and upcoming wedding. The coloring sheet showing ten methods on how to appear taller than your fiancee was obviously inspired by stories of Prince Charles standing on the step above Diana on their engagement day to appear taller, since pictures taken the same day also show that she was a little taller on level ground. (He is also supposed to have stood on a box to appear taller for their stamp portraits.) And unverified phone taps of the couple's conversations on his Australian tour are recalled by the pencil maze puzzle for getting to the phone of "your Sheila" instead of winding up "talking to some bloke in Wagga Wagga". Others, however, must be lost to time. Did Prince Charles really fall off his horse enough times in the months before the wedding that he merited the two sheets twitting him about it?
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