Elisabeth Basford

She was Filey’s favourite Royal. Her children regularly holidayed on The Crescent in the 1920s. In the 1930s Princess Mary sent her husband, EarlHarewood, to view the White Lodge when it was put up for sale. With Butlin’s in early stage of construction, the Earl decided against a seaside residence and the White Lodge became the hotel we know today. Princess Diana is seen as the first member of the Royal Family to tear up the rulebook, and the Duchess of Cambridge is modernising the monarchy in strides. But before them was another who paved the way.Princess Mary was born in 1897. Despite her Victorian beginnings, she strove to make a princess’s life meaningful, using her position to help those less fortunate. As the only daughter of King George V and QueenMary, she would live to see not only two of her brothers ascend the throne but also her niece Queen Elizabeth II.During the First World War she came into her own, launching an appeal to furnish every British troop and sailor with a Christmas gift, and herself training as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital.From her dedication to the war effort, to her role as the family peacemaker during the Abdication Crisis, Mary was the princess who redefined the title for the modern age. In the first biography in decades, Yorkshire author Elisabeth Basford offers a fresh appraisal of Mary’s full and fascinating life.