Endgame (Scobie book)
{{short description|2023 biography}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Endgame
| image = Endgame (Scobie book).jpg
| alt = Book cover with a grey background, featuring the title Endgame, images of British royals, and the author's name
| caption = First edition
| authors = Omid Scobie
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| subject = British royal family
| genre =
| publisher = HarperCollins
| pub_date = 28 November 2023
| media_type = Print
| pages = 416
| isbn = 9780008534714
| dewey =
| congress =
}}
Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival is a book by Omid Scobie, revolving around the lives of members of the British royal family specifically in the final years of the life of Queen Elizabeth II and in the few months after her death.{{cite news|title=Omid Scobie book Endgame promises to detail Royal Family turmoil|work=BBC News|first=Sean|last=Coughlan |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67546153|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924104908/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67546153|date=27 November 2023|access-date=26 February 2025|archive-date=24 September 2024|url-status=live}} It was published on 28 November 2023 by HarperCollins.{{cite news|title=How a book publishing 'mistake' reignited the U.K.'s royal racism furor|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Mark|last=Landler|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/europe/uk-royals-book-endgame-racism.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910001824/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/europe/uk-royals-book-endgame-racism.html|date=30 November 2023|access-date=26 February 2025|archive-date=10 September 2024|url-access=subscription|url-status=live}}
Summary
The book argues that the House of Windsor lost its protective barrier with the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Scobie explains why the monarchy needs to adjust to a society that is rapidly modernising and let go of outdated notions of race, class, and wealth.{{cite book|title=Endgame: The biography from the bestselling author telling the true story of the royal family and looking to the future for King Charles III after the death of Elizabeth II|date=28 November 2023|id={{ASIN|0008534713|country=uk}} }}
Background and writing
File:2022 - Fourth Estate SAM 9975 (52472936660) (cropped).jpg
Scobie is the royal editor for Harper's Bazaar, and has also contributed to Good Morning America and ABC News. He reportedly "maintains strong access" to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan's working world.{{cite book |publisher=HarperCollins|last1=Scobie|first1=Omid |last2=Durand|first2=Carolyn Publishers|title=About the author |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Iy8JzgEACAAJ|isbn = 9780063046115|access-date=10 December 2020|date=3 August 2021}} The book was reported to aim criticism at the British royal family as an institution as well as at individual members of the family.{{cite news|title=10 explosive claims from Omid Scobie's scathing new royal book Endgame|work=The Independent|first=Maanya |last=Sachdeva|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/news/endgame-book-omid-scobie-royals-b2455528.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612163602/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/news/endgame-book-omid-scobie-royals-b2455528.html|date=29 November 2023|access-date=26 February 2025|archive-date=12 June 2024|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=A royal family 'in crisis': six claims from Omid Scobie's book|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Caroline|last=Davies|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/28/a-royal-family-in-crisis-six-claims-from-omid-scobie-book-endgame|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240217223939/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/28/a-royal-family-in-crisis-six-claims-from-omid-scobie-book-endgame|date=28 November 2023|access-date=26 February 2025|archive-date=17 February 2024|url-status=live}} The information in the book was stated to have been drawn from "sources".
The Dutch edition of the book was recalled after it named King Charles III and Catherine, Princess of Wales as the two royals who were alleged to have asked questions about Prince Harry and Meghan's future child's skin colour.{{Cite news |newspaper=The Guardian|title=Royals and race: inquiry under way into naming of Charles and Catherine in new book|first1=Matthew|last1=Weaver |first2=Caroline|last2=Davies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/30/inquiry-naming-king-charles-catherine-duchess-sussex-kate-royal-book-race-harry-meghan|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250318100918/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/30/inquiry-naming-king-charles-catherine-duchess-sussex-kate-royal-book-race-harry-meghan|date=30 November 2023|archive-date=18 March 2025|access-date=1 December 2023|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=King Charles, Princess Kate identified by British press as royals named in Dutch version of 'Endgame' amid racial controversy|work=Good Morning America|first=Katie|last=Kindelan |url=https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/king-charles-princess-kate-identified-british-press-royals/story?id=105305587|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240917022342/https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/king-charles-princess-kate-identified-british-press-royals/story?id=105305587|date=1 December 2023|access-date=26 February 2025|archive-date=17 September 2024|url-status=live}} In a TV interview on This Morning, Scobie stated that he did not include the two names in his version of the book. He also claimed that he had anticipated the "heated and controversial" public reaction to his book, and that he had been subjected to "unfair attacks" and "character assassination".{{cite news|work=ITV|title=Exclusive: Omid Scobie speaks out about royal book 'translation error'|url=https://www.itv.com/thismorning/articles/exclusive-omid-scobie-speaks-out-about-royal-book-translation-error|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241206230040/https://www.itv.com/thismorning/articles/exclusive-omid-scobie-speaks-out-about-royal-book-translation-error|date=30 November 2023|access-date=9 December 2023|archive-date=6 December 2024|url-status=live}} A week later he wrote in the i newspaper that, unbeknownst to him at the time, a draft of Endgame that had not yet been cleared by lawyers and contained the names had been sent to the Dutch publisher so that work could be started on translation, on the understanding that the translation would be updated to reflect the final version of the book. The Dutch publisher Xander Uitgevers disagreed with Scobie's account, calling it "factually incorrect".{{cite news|work=BBC News|first=James|last=Gregory |title=Omid Scobie: Endgame draft text to blame for royal naming error|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67664800|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241119071808/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67664800|date=8 December 2023|access-date=9 December 2023|archive-date=19 November 2024|url-status=live}}
Release and reception
In the United States Endgame spent just one week on The New York Times hardback nonfiction bestseller list (at number 12), while in the United Kingdom it was reported to have sold 6,488 copies in its first five days, compared to 31,000 for Scobie's previous book Finding Freedom (2020) in its first five days.{{cite news|title=Hardcover nonfiction|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2023/12/17/hardcover-nonfiction/|archive-date=27 February 2025|date=17 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250227173935/https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2023/12/17/hardcover-nonfiction/|url-access=subscription|url-status=live}}{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|title=King Charles and royals put on united front after Endgame claims|first1=Lucy|first2=Ben |first3=Jack|first4=Sam |last1=Bannerman|last2=Ellery |last3=Malvern |last4=Rucker|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/royal-family/article/mid-scobie-endgame-dutch-translation-royals-8gv3dt75c|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105064545/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mid-scobie-endgame-dutch-translation-royals-8gv3dt75c|date=5 December 2023|archive-date=5 January 2024|url-access=subscription|url-status=live}}
BBC News's verdict on the book was that it covered familiar territory and felt somewhat dated. The reviewer said: "The Endgame of the title suggests an institution that's in serious trouble. But this won't be the book to sink it."{{cite news|title=Omid Scobie royal book: More like Action Replay than Endgame|work=BBC News|first=Sean|last=Coughlan |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67546162|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924092537/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67546162|date=28 November 2023|access-date=1 December 2023|archive-date=24 September 2024|url-status=live}} Writing for The New York Times, Eva Wolchover stated that much of the information in the book was already available to the public and many parts of the book were "devoted to setting the record straight on petty slights against the Sussexes".{{cite news|title=Another battle royale in the Windsor war|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Eva|last=Wolchover |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/26/books/review/endgame-omid-scobie.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501043212/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/26/books/review/endgame-omid-scobie.html|date=26 November 2023|access-date=26 February 2025|archive-date=1 May 2024|url-access=subscription|url-status=live}} Anita Singh of The Daily Telegraph gave the book two out of five stars and labeled it "ludicrous propaganda for Team Sussex" that "is laughably partial, devoid of insight and bizarrely misogynistic".{{cite news|title=Omid Scobie's Endgame is ludicrous propaganda for Team Sussex|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|first=Anita|last=Singh |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/endgame-omid-scobie-review/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250125233816/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/endgame-omid-scobie-review/|date=28 November 2023|archive-date=25 January 2025|access-date=26 February 2025|url-access=subscription|url-status=live}} Hilary Rose of The Times also believed the book shone a favorable light on Harry and Meghan and criticised the rest of the royal family as with Scobie "it never cuts both ways; there are no shades of grey, only good guys and bad guys". She added that the book is "not so much an incisive look at why he thinks the monarchy is doomed, more a mishmash of ancient history, ageing stories and a bit of new stuff, some of it interesting".{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|first=Hilary|last=Rose |title=Omid Scobie's Endgame review — Harry and Meghan's biggest fan is back|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/endgame-book-review-omid-scobie-harry-meghan-wtxh0rwp5|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250130020250/https://www.thetimes.com/article/endgame-book-review-omid-scobie-harry-meghan-wtxh0rwp5|date=28 November 2023|access-date=26 February 2025|archive-date=30 January 2025|url-access=subscription|url-status=live}}