Janice Hadlow's superb family biography is far more than just "the private life of King George III" as the subtitle maintains: it is a chronicle of what must be one of the most dysfunctional families ever known. While the details of what went on within the House of Hanover in Britain during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are often harrowing, Hadlow's sympathetic approach, often using psychological analysis to help readers better understand why these arrogant, self-centered, and deeply troubled individuals behaved as they did.The House of Hanover became the British Royal Family in 1714 not because they were especially clever or gifted but because they were Protestant and malleable (at least part of the time) to the will of Parliament. Their first monarch was King George I, who never learned to speak English very well and who preferred to spend as much time as possible back home in Germany. He had had an unhappy marriage that collapsed when he imprisoned his wife for adultery, leaving her behind when he took the British throne and refusing to allow her to call herself Queen. He and his son became political rivals and enemies, starting a pattern that continued over the next several generations. King George II was a slight improvement on his father in that he loved his wife Queen Caroline and spent more time in Britain, but he was an unpleasant character who came to positively hate his own son and heir, Frederick. Internecine conflict continued until Frederick died unlamented by either parent, leaving his eldest son George to become Prince of Wales as a teenager.George grew up shy and awkward, intimidated by his grandfather the King and out of the public eye. He became King at 20, abandoned his first love Lady Sarah Lennox, and made a suitable dynastic marriage with Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. There was much to commend about King George III and Queen Charlotte. They were intelligent people who were determined to set a good example of family affection. They had fifteen children over 21 years, raising them in a happy atmosphere with lots of romping. Unfortunately as the children grew up things soured. The seven sons (two others died as infants) were relentlessly criticized and disciplined for any shortcomings and in consequence were rackety and sexually profligate, conducting one affair after another with unsuitable women that produced many illegitimate children, but failing to marry until late in their lives, spending lavishly and getting deep into debt. It was even worse for the six daughters. George III adored them and could not bear to think of any of them leaving him, so with total disregard for their feelings he refused to allow them to marry as young women. Eventually some of them did manage to find husbands in middle age, while the rest had secret love affairs of their own which produced at least one illegitimate child.The most important of George III's children was the eldest son. George, Prince of Wales made a disastrous marriage that produced one daughter, spent years partying, then became Regent when his father's health broke down in 1810. His daughter Charlotte, raised in isolation from both parents, grew up boisterous and romantic. She made a happy marriage but then died in childbirth in 1817 three years before George III himself passed away, blind and insane.This long chronicle of family tragedy is fascinating to read. Hadlow does an excellent job of describing the personalities and careers of the Hanovers from generation to generation. It was especially interesting to read about the lives of the various Queens and Princesses, many of whom were intellectually inclined (far more so than the men in the family)and who put up with endless problems caused by their Royal status. I was also intrigued by Hadlow's material on King George III's many illnesses, which contrary to long-established belief may not have been porphyria-related. I finished the book with fresh admiration for the most important of King George III's grandchildren, the future Queen Victoria, who despite her own numerous eccentricities seemed positively normal compared to her forebears and other relations.