I’ve thought for a while now that Hold Still is basically the perfect project for the Duchess of Cambridge. It was clearly organized outside of Kensington Palace, and the project was brought to Kate by one of her patronages, the National Portrait Gallery. Kate got to tick off multiple “events” for doing sh-t like “looking at photos” and “visiting photo exhibits.” Kate lends her name to something to raise its profile, and she gets credit for it? Come on, that’s a win-win, and she didn’t even have to break out a pie chart. So Kate also gets credit for the Hold Still coffee-table book, which is out on Friday, May 7th. To promote the sale of the book, the Cambridges’ Instagram posted the teaser, above, of some of the images. I’ll say it again – Hold Still is a really cool project and it was put together very well. That’s how you can tell that Kate and Kensington Palace had very little to do with it.
Meanwhile, of course there’s talk that You Know Who has been trying to steal Kate’s keen thunder by announcing her children’s book.
Kate Middleton has shared a glimpse into her photobook ‘Hold Still’ ahead of its launch on Friday – a day after he sister-in-law unveiled her own children’s book. The project, a collection of 100 photographs which captured life in the UK under lockdown and the Covid-19 pandemic, has been ongoing for a year. It will be released on May 7 and the Duchess of Cambridge has put out a video showing a brief glimpse into its contents via social media. The book, named Hold Still: A Portrait of Our Nation in 2020, will raise vital cash for mental health charity Mind and the National Portrait Gallery.
The tease of the work came amid accusations that her sister-in-law Meghan Markle was “trying to upstage” her after announcing her own book, titled ‘The Bench.’ That book is said to be about the special relationship between a dad and a son. It is inspired by her husband Prince Harry and their son Archie, and will be published next month.
You know what this reminds me of? The old-school drama between Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie. I swear to God, for a good five or six years, whenever Aniston had a movie coming out, suddenly Angelina would get “pap’d” with the kids. Whenever Jolie had a movie out, suddenly Aniston was seen with a new guy. I’m sure that there’s a slight passive-aggressive one-upmanship happening here between Meghan and Kate, and that’s what makes it fun for royal gossips.
Also: while Hold Still’s profits go to charity, no one is sure what’s happening with the profits from The Bench. Meghan is under no obligation to donate the proceeds to charity or anything and people should stop telling her what to do with her money, etc. I don’t have a problem with Meghan making millions of dollars as a children’s book author.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I’m sorry, but with how much they were hyping up the hold still book, I assumed that it was published ages ago.
Lol, I had the same assumption. We should have known that they would flog this thing endlessly, since Kate has little else.
I thought the book was already out as well bc there was that IG video a few weeks (months?) ago with Kate opening the box and pulling out the book. I thought that was when it was released.
This is like a Starbucks opening up next to an aroma Cafe. It benefits both of them to jump on each other’s new cycles.
The Sussexes are not jumping onto what the Cambridges are doing, lol.
Largely because they do nothing.
Nice comment: Kate looks really lovely in that ruby red sweater and the early dusk light. Suits her a lot more than the camera lighting and coral blazer.
Didn’t she do her degree in art history? This feels like the kind of thing that sits right in her wheelhouse of skills and interests. She’s like a queen to be in the wrong era with her family basing what she’d do over what it was like in the 80s. This would have been amazing work 40/50 years ago, but now showing up with a smile and lending your name aren’t enough, and she’d need a business degree or work experience to really help any of her patronages
Even in the 1980s Diana did far more work as Princess of Wales while raising a young family. Kate is simply lazy and won’t work unless forced to. That’s what the last 20 years have shown us.
You don’t need a business degree to help your patronages. Princess Anne is a workhorse and has no degree. You just have to have a work ethic and a desire to help other people. If you want to “create” something, you could hire innovative people (like Kate’s old secretary, Catherine Quinn who left quickly) to assist. If Kate wanted to just be an old school royal and fill her days with the bread & butter events of cutting ribbons and showing up to press the flesh of her patronages, that would be great.
I strongly believe that if Kate had pursued photography as a career, maybe combining it with her love of athletics to be a sports photographer, she would have been brilliant – and a thousand times more productive than she is now.
It’s too bad that she and her mother believed that bagging a prince was the more important career choice.
There is nothing stopping her from pursuing her passions. She could have still “bagged” her prince and then done more. She is content to be a wealthy SAHM with the occasional “volunteer” gig. I don’t see where she has any drive to do anything outside of the little she does.
Kate apparently wanted to be there for the phone calls from William and having a serious full time job with deadlines would have made things “difficult.”
Meghan and Harry have an actual functioning foundation that she can donate her income to from her book sales, and I’ll betting at least some of it will. It will be put to good use. And since they have to pay for everything for themselves, she should keep evey last damn penny. After all, didn’t the Fam tell Harry she should maybe continue acting because they didn’t have enough money to pay for someone so Black? So instead of acting, she’s writing.
Everyone who hates them keeps whining about how they shouldn’t have to pay for them. Guess what? YOU DON’T. But that also means they get to earn a living.
As for Kate’s book, I think it’s actually a lovely project and has produced something nice out of what was undoubtedly one of the worst years in recent memory. Her team may not have organized it, but she did participate.
I wish someone had done a similar project in the US. It would nice to have that kind of record for the future.
There are a lot of people doing similar things in the US, but we don’t have the royalty to back them.
I think it would’ve been cool, and would have given Kate many more “events” to do without actually having to do a lot, if there was a Hold Still competition/book for some of the common wealth counties too. It would be so interesting to see how the pandemic was different, or affected people differently, or how people dealt with it differently across the world. There could be a whole Hold Still series with each book being available to purchase across all the CW countries so that commonwealth countries and the UK could help support each other’s charities by being each other’s books. You could have collectors who bought every single book from each of the countries and it would be such an interesting record of the pandemic throughout the world as opposed to just in the UK. Kate could’ve done most of the word over zoom and then on social media to promote the competitions and the books. It would’ve kept her looking very busy throughout 2020/2021
Yup it is an excellent project made all the better for not being driven by KP and Kate. They can’t manage anything. But i’m glad she is involved and lending her voice and platform to support this.
As to stepping on each other’s news cycles, we probably will continue to see that but it seems like not a big deal?
These are exactly the kinds of projects Kate should be doing. She doesn’t have to come up with and execute major initiatives on her own. she just needs to lend her name to a project like this so it gets more publicity and raises more money. I think someone at KP is caught up in the idea that the Cambridges need to be creating the next Prince’s Trust, but there is no motivation or work ethic on the part of the Cambridges to do anything on that scale, so we get a lot of these little projects that sort of end before they begin, like the early years survey. But they don’t have to create the next Prince’s Trust. Lend your support to projects like this that someone else is mostly responsible for and do it over and over again.
To be clear I think it would be great if they DID execute major initiatives that they came up with, but they clearly can’t or won’t so they should stick to these kinds of things.
Kate’s hair looks amazing! Different though, probably extensions
I wonder if keens die hard fans will actually buy this book. And if there’s is any competition it isn’t coming from meghans side. She’s simply going about her day.
They are releasing the photos on line and Kate is having chats with winners that will be on YouTube so it seems to me they are releasing too much that people can access on-line so why would they feel compelled to buy the book?
@Equality: Criticize it as you will but this type of presale marketing strategy proved quite efficacious during the Roosevelt era.
@Madelaine Are you being sarcastic? YouTube during the Roosevelt era?
😁😜
It really is a cool project. That’s the kind of thing she should focuses on.
I doubt Meghan even knew she was releasing this book so really the competition is on sided.
Where’s the accusation of Kate trying to take the spotlight from Archie’s birthday? That’s how it would read if Meghan announced anything on a Cambridge birthday. There are suggestions on twitter that the youtube announcement was to take attention away from the court win and Jason Knauf’s part in the whole thing. Why can the BM not just announce a Cambridge project without mentioning H&M?
i don’t have an issue with meghan, or other celebrities, making millions off children’s books. but I do have an issue with the way the publishing industry runs, which throws millions of dollars at celebrity authors and then giving far lesser contracts to upcoming & as-yet unknown authors (not to mention all the authors entirely shut out). in a fairer world, meghan & celebrities would be paid about the same amount as non-celebrity authors.
Sure, but that’s also like saying a talented theater school graduate should be paid the same as Jennifer Lopez to be in a film. One can act, one not so much, but the celebrity is a box office draw. When you pay a celebrity, you’re buying advertising for your entire company. And if we take a good hard look at the market – how many will buy Meghan’s book to support her and how many actually want a book for babies?
But I totally agree about the abysmal contracts. A friend of mine has had 2 best sellers in the non-fiction market and still keeps her day job to survive.
Publishing is a tough business, and only a few make money at it. Celebrity books help keep the business solvent.
Even with a lot of buzz, a first time unknown author might sell 10-20k books. Probably less than that. How many do you think Meghan will sell? Or any other well known celebrity? So its crazy to carp about “unfair this” or “unknown that” when that is not how the game is played nor has it ever been.
The problem is is that big publishing houses are way too dependent on mega-selling authors just to keep their businesses going. If a Stephen King or John Grisham jumps houses, that can devastate a house’s bottom line–forget money used for planning for new titles. But the more money the former sink into celebrities, the less they have to boost new/lesser-known authors who really need it–and who could become bestselling authors themseles. (As well, I would seriously question how many of those celebrity books actually make money or break even.) Honestly, a new author’s best bet is to try indie or small houses to break through–but those don’t pay enough to make a living.
That’s just not true.
This is so embarrassing. She really is not good at cosplaying Duchess Meghan at all is she?
Has she done something to her face? I can’t really put my finger on it, but she looks nipped and tucked. It’s not a good look whatever she has done to her face.
She’s very thin right now and so the fillers in her cheeks become even more obvious. Plus I am sure there is photoshop in the mix.
I maintain that the lighter coloured hair on her ages her beyond her years. (and if I want to be mean, it brings out the inner witch in her) She just looks so much better, vibrant if you will, with darker hair.
Meghan being who she is will probably congratulate Kate on the book, have something really nice to say about it and then go about her business. That’s my take
Heck it might even be in the background of their next zoom call with their other books. (I actually doubt that, but Meghan is that kind of person). And that’s exactly the kind of thing that Kate should have done with Meghan’s projects – shown up to an event wearing something from Smart Works, or casually posted a picture with Together in the background even if Kate never cracked it open.
The petty side of me would die laughing if the numbers of sales for this book remained low for weeks, then Meghan gave it an endorsement and it sold out immediately.
Agreed. Hold Still was a lovely project and even if Kate had nothing else to do with other than show up a few times and slap her name on a foreword someone else wrote, it’s still a good idea as she’s lending her name and platform to it. And it’s what she have been doing all along – promoting your patronages.
I have long been saying that “bread and butter” engagement would suit Kate far more than big projects. Not everyone can and want to do big projects and that’s okay as long as you’re making it up by doing 300-400 hospital openings and the like every year.
It’s an easy win-win for Kate if she does them. If she’s out more, more excuses for a new outfit. She can be in and out of the engagement in less than an hour and they don’t require long term commitments or deep knowledge from her. Plus she can easily do them while George and Charlotte are at school 6 hours a day and Louis is at nursery for a few hours. Or even if he wasn’t or Kate didn’t have time to do it while he’s at nursery, I’m sure Louis would be okay to stay with the nanny for 2 hours while his mummy goes out and does her job.
The only issue is that Kate has to do 300+ of these to make it seem she’s working hard.
She’s not in the video or doing a voiceover. So basically, she did nothing. Someone else put together the video and posted it. Typical.
Comparisons are ridiculous the only thing these books have in common is the word
Duchess. Two very different genres and audiences it should not even be a consideration and the literary world never has enough books as far as I am concerned, the public will choose what they are interested in. Truly a non story.
I cannot imagine that Meghan gives a a single f-ck about what Kate is doing and when.
The book looks very good. (Insert meme of Angela from The Office saying “I mean I don’t even want to compliment Pam because she’s so urgh..”)
On the UK amazon page it appears to be the top bestseller. So, whatever my opinion on “HRH Catherine” (happy, ANP? you sneaky troll) it’s a good use of her platform, as Sofia said above. (And also yes, I too thought the book was out already.)
Excellent initiative and a good cause. Will it do well? Yes. But only in the UK as “portrait of a nation” is much more specific than Meghan’s concept.
All of a sudden, she is doing projects similar to Meghan. Meghan wrote a book, so Catty had to do it too. The Lamebridges have no original thought process.
The Hold Still project began as an online project in 2020. It was announced it was to be available in hard copy on March 30, 2021. In this case, you cannot possibly say that Kate’s book idea is copying Meghan’s.
Yesterday, I said that Duchess Meghan’s book release announcement would be met in no time by Duchess Catherine’s urge to emulate her. It took the latter less than 48 hours to respond as planned, because jealousy is a pathology that makes the person subjected to it annoyingly predictable.
There is an undisputable factual pattern that Duchess Meghan is the novelty instigator, the trend setter, while la Princesse William de Cambridge is the one who’s constantly shaken awake from her slumber by relevant initiatives she never appears to see coming. Nevertheless, the mainstream gutter press keeps twisting and reversing this pattern.
Well, to be fair, this book release would have been scheduled before Meghan’s announcement. I def think the Cambridges try to disrupt the Sussexes news cycles, but I don’ think this is a good example of that. Kate couldn’t just call up the publisher and say “push the release date up by a month!!!”
Maybe, but this book has been limbo for a while. Like many have said, I also thought the book was already out. Where can you even purchase this? Was there a pre order? Megs book sold out within hours and I haven’t heard that type of information coming from Keen’s book.
@JT – well that’s just asking too much now for preorder or purchasing information to be shared. Kate has to go on vacation at some point, you know!!!!
(in all seriousness, I did check Amazon in the US and its not showing up at all, maybe its only being released in the UK?)
I think it is only released through the national portrait gallery that’s publishing it.https://npgshop.org.uk/products/hold-still-hardcover
@Equality This information should be made along with the release. It is dumb that people have to put the work in to discover it. It reminds me of the forward TOB wrote for his cookbook; there was no information on how to purchase it.
The fact that this info wasn’t given along with the release is somehow demonstrative of a post Meghan-announcement rush to let everybody know Catherine had been working her derrière off. I believe there was only a loose timing for her book release but that the date was set overnight upon hearing about Meghan’s. The Cambridge team is not into action but reaction, I’m afraid.
There is a huge difference here, Meghan wrote her book,,Kate is taking credit for other people work it’s not like she even took the pictures for the book.
Unlike Kate, Meghan is NOT on welfare. Of course she gets to earn a living. And she’s living somewhere where people are going to admire her hustle, not whine about what she does with every last dollar. She and Harry are incredibly generous. They’ve gotta do what they need to do to support themselves while doing philanthropic work.
Since the coffee table book has been out for ages, this is Kate Keen jumping on Meghan’s news cycle. Keen and PWT just cannot bear to be eclipsed by a biracial American woman who is now living happily and healthily with a husband who adores her and won’t play Third Wheel to the Haplesses. PWT must be steaming with rage: he’s been beaten, hands down, by a younger brother who refuses to live a fishbowl life, and the extra competition puts a crimp in his gardening activities.
NB: I do not like Meghan’s writing at all – far too floral and purplish prose runs rampant on her pages – but I’ll damn well buy her books to support her, her foundation and future happiness. Sucks to be you, Keenbridges!
The coffee table book comes out tomorrow. It’s just poor marketing by KP that you and others thought it came out already.
I’m not a fan of her writing either. That aside, I wish her all the success and happiness in the world.
I want to generate some fake outrage about this. Like, how dare Kate support a book about life in the pandemic when she went on the choo-choo train tour? lol Anyway, I’m fine with both books coming out at same time because both will be discussed in every article and may lead to more sales. A Team Meghan member like me may not usually pay attention to Kate’s projects, but now that i know about this coffee book I may pick it up as well because it benefits a good cause and looks good.
I’m sure the book will sell out but I think KP’s PR for this project has been poor. If KP wants the public to know what Kate is doing they need to do more to publicise her projects. I think she should have been on one of the breakfast shows promoting it and they could have done more on Instagram. They take the public for granted too much.
I don’t think it will sell out it hasn’t made as much of splash, espy as they have been trading this book for weeks/months. In contrast, Meghan’s book was written in tons of article across the world and she did no promotion for it.
Well they didn’t exactly strike while the iron was hot, so many people thought it came out long ago.
Kate should do live interview and talk show to promote this book.
I hope we can see how she talk and answer questions from the talk show hosts.
It will be cringy and hillarious.
Opss i mean fun and informative.
I don’t think Kate knows much about this project and how it came together. She lent her name, not so much her time.
It would also be heavily edited.
I think it’s unfair to accuse Meghan of being passive aggressive or of one upmanship. Katie Keen has had multiple announcements about this book. I like others thought it was already out. Meghan provides a press release from the publisher for her book. That’s a pretty low key launch. If she wanted to one up there are so many things she could have done. But the way it was done the focus was on the project not her ( except for the haters who make everything about hating her). It’s May, how many times has Meghan been seen this year. Hardly the pattern of behavior of someone looking to one up someone else. If the Sussexes were really focused on overshadowing the Cambridge’s they would use social media/traditional media much more than they do. It’s interesting that it’s the Sussexes who are always being accused of one using or overshadowing or attention seeking when it’s the Cambridge’s who are diving deeper and deeper into bed with the media and exposing themselves and their children more and more. The Sussexes on the other hand are hardly seen or heard from directly.
I will buy this. I love history and we are living through major history event. When getting my vaccine I wondered if people receiving the polio vaccine felt the same emotions
This stupid “outrage” about these books is, ugh! I’m guessing that Meghans book announcement was coordinated with the timing of Archies birthday since they know there is a lot of interest in him amongst the Sussex Squad. I don’t know how many in that group will be looking to buy Kate’s coffee table book unless they live in the UK.
Agree that this project is a great idea, but no way do I believe it was Kate’s idea. The one comment I have about the book, from looking at the picture of the inside of it, if that is the way every page is laid out, what a waste of space. The big letters are very annoying and distracting. And the amount of space the letters take up could have been better put to use by additional pictures.