The Autumn Radio 2 Book Club Pick A Grazia Book of the Year 'Honest, provocative and disarmingly funny' Guardian Charming, witty and touching, an Eighties Breakfast at Tiffany s DAVID NICHOLLS 'Dazzling ... I'm incoherent with love for it' MARIAN KEYES Elegant, sexy, tender, wild ... A beautiful, beautiful book EMMA JANE UNSWORTH, author of ANIMALS July, 1981.
London. Shy, working-class Steven finds solace in beauty. Eighteen years old, he dreams of being a fashion designer.
He s also gay, maybe he hasn t decided yet. There s a lot Steven isn t sure about, like whether he hates himself or thinks he s amazing. When he ends up in hospital after being brutally attacked by his father, he meets Jasmine, an heiress.
Intoxicating, anarchic, fabulous Jasmine. Fuelled by their shared love of fashion, a friendship blossoms and soon, Steven finds himself swept into her hedonistic world, wholly beguiled. However, underneath the glitter and the frivolity, darkness lies.
Devastating, dazzling, queer and radical, Royals is a love story between unlikely friends from completely different worlds. It s about the power of art to transform lives and the power of families to destroy them. It s about working out who you are and what you want.
It s a tale of giddy happiness, crushing lows and, ultimately, the fragility of lives lived too fast.
