Re-telling tales of William and Harry

Beyond Prince Charles caught on camera dismissing Nicholas Witchell as 'that ghastly man', the best gag involving Royal Correspondents is a Ronni Ancona sketch where she appeared as Jenny Bond, refusing to divulge anything whatsoever because, after all, as she reminds her exasperated anchors and audience, 'they're my friends, not yours.'

A perennial dilemma for a royal/celebrity reporter. That said, while the Mail on Sunday's Katie Nicholl might have amidst the flamingoes, been plied with champagne by Prince Harry at Kensington Roof Gardens and have their private offices on speed dial, the same can't be said of her approach in her book William and Harry.

In well researched but breezy tones she combines a broadly speaking generous interpretation with salacious titbits of gossip they might prefer left out. Can you imagine, for instance Jenny/Ronni, for instance, ever asserting that a teenage Laura Parker Bowles, daughter of Camilla, used to pick up the landline and screech at Charles: 'Why don't you stop calling Mummy and leave our family alone?'

As a biographer, Nicholl is for the most part affectionate (her account of the boys' relationship with their parents is genuinely touching) but without necessarily worrying about whether Wills or Harry will want to hang out with her again. And while there's an impressive list of on record confidantes there are also clearly a vast string of anonymous ones, whose gap ya tones can be heard in their various analyses of the character and destiny of Wills and Harry and, of course, more excitingly, their relationships.

Party animal 'Chels', who sounds enormous fun, and Kate Middleton, who doesn't, both get a soft run, presumably just case either of them ends up in the Firm. From Facebook to Boujis and the Beaufort, via Courcheval and of course, endless holidays in Mustique, if you want to track the course of the royal Wags exhaustively, this is the summer read for you...ideally if you are on a beach in Mustique.

William is quoted as saying he plants stories with frenemies to test their loyalty and so clearly there's a limit to who would open up.

That said, her possibly apocraphal story about Prince Harry's spoof message recorded on the Queen's new mobile one Christmas, like so much of what she writes, has to me, the ringtone of truth: 'Hey, wassup? This is Liz. Sorry I'm away from the throne. For a hotline to Philip press one, for Charles press two, for the corgis press three'

For all the palaces and the privilege, monarch in waiting and spare heir, come across as unenviable positions. If you believe Nichol's gossipy gripping version, at least they have a sense of humour to help them on their way.