Published by Corgi Books, 1999, softcover, illustrated, index, 406 pages, condition; very good.
First published in 1998, this is a study, based on DNA sequencing, that traces the porphyria stain through the genealogical maze of Europe's royal dynasties to the present day descendants of the Houses of Hanover and Windsor, and the consequences it might have had on the history of Europe and North America.
"The authors of this book take a step-by-step interdisciplinary approach to the question of whether or not George III and his descendants had porphyria. It's impressive, more scholarly than I expected, and convincing. I was impressed that they followed the trail to Continental Europe, and through several centuries - much longer and further than I thought.
They first review the original claim from the 1960s, and weigh its influence. Then they take the reader on a tour of the relatives of George III, to see if they can turn up anyone in the family with the same symptoms. They not only demonstrate from letters and diaries, that the same symptoms appeared repeatedly, but also find indications that the sufferers themselves recognised similarities between their illnesses. They link this chain of evidence to other clinically-diagnosed cases of porphyria. Finally, they manage to find DNA from descendants of George and Victoria and analyse it for mutations that could have caused porphyria. "
"This is an unpleasant book at times, not because its poorly written but because it talks about a lot of very sick people who suffered a lot throughout their lives. Its very good actually; the history is balanced with the science and every hypothesis and claim is backed up with very solid evidence. It seems that the existence of porphyria in the royal family is nearly a certain thing, thanks to the exhaustive research of this book. I learned a lot about various figures I knew about and some I didnt. A Fascinating read, also because the royal malady is typically meant to mean hemophilia and its interesting to see that theres another disease with even more provenance. It didnt get too bogged down by the science and was pretty comprehensible for non scientists. Extremely well researched.'
