What I was trying to get across in a rather smarmy way was that the author deliberately invoked today's Royals with the intent of garnering press interest and to that extent she was hugely successful. But I think the irony she used in exposing our value system will go over the heads of the 'gotcha' press and
'celebrity chasers.'
We are becoming a society where a person does not have to be intelligent to gain worldwide exposure, they simply have to be beautiful and know when to simper and bat their eye lashes; a good case in point is the Kardashians, who lets face it, are not known for their intellectual prowess.
The Royals are not
'celebrities' and their lifestyle is not to garner fame for fames sake. They have a duty to perform and do they do it well and their contribution to their country is invaluable. They are not a brand that needs selling, nor do they need endorsements, their job for want of a better word is to present the best that their country has to offer and they are doing it well.
I don't know how well Hilary Mantel knows her subject when it comes to The Duchess of Cambridge as some of her observations seem shallow; there is much more to the lady than being presented as an empty headed fashion horse, who knows when to smile on cue. My own belief is that Kate Middleton went after William at their first encounter, they then shared a flat together and when Prince William wanted to leave St. Andrews it was Kate who talked him into staying, a very canny move.
In the early days the royal couple had their ups and downs including their break up, but once again Kate showed her mettle by not curling up and dying, but rather she went out and proved to William just what he was missing.
In the end Kate got her man and William is no pushover. The big bonus for both of them is that they do love and support one another. They are now living a relatively private life while they can and hence Kate appears a glossy figure lacking in substance, she is anything but that.
I think Hilary Mantel should have been more judicious in her opinion on people in whom she knows so little and some of her remarks are catty and spiteful:
"But Kate Middleton, as she was, appeared to have been designed by a committee and built by craftsmen, with a perfect plastic smile and the spindles of her limbs hand-turned and gloss-varnished..."....Kate seems to have been selected for her role of princess because she was irreproachable: as painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character..."
With her article Hilary has started a firestorm, whether this is what she intended I do not know and I don't intend to second guess just by looking at her photo...Is Hilary simply tired of being photographed?
But in her first official portrait by Paul Emsley, unveiled in January, her eyes are dead and she wears the strained smile of a woman who really wants to tell the painter to bugger off. One critic said perceptively that she appeared weary of being looked at.
I am not telepathic, but I wonder if Hilary by the end of the week will sip a hot cup of cocoa while she reads a Barbara Cartland novel.
Bec
She also has a public image? REALLY? *gasp* You mean like every other public figure. NO! Stop! I simply must sit down for this is such a shock to the system! 
