As private secretary to Earl Mountbatten of Burma for 14 years, John Barratt came to know about his habits, his household and his family. More of a friend than a servant, Barratt remembers Mountbatten's family, occasionally troubled relationship with his wife and daughters, his usually endearing eccentricities, his routines, diversions and sadnesses and describes the day-to-day running of Broadlands. After Mountbatten's death in 1979 Barratt went to work for Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and there he learnt a good deal more about a very different kind of household. In this book he presents an insider's portrait of these people.