"One wonders how any publisher could have thought fit to publish this grammar-defying set of badly rhyming cod homilies."
Ouch.
It seems not everyone is on board with Meghan Markle's latest endeavor; a children's book called
The Bench.
The book features the illustrations of artist Christian Robinson and sentimental rhymes about Harry and Archie, written my Meghan.
https://www.instagram.com/p/COdNElcH7jr/
Irish Times journalist Rosita Boland yesterday
panned the Dutchess' literary attempts saying "it's awful" and adding, "The Bench apparently began as a message to Harry. It should have stayed between them."
But she wasn't alone. The international press were no kinder.
In another
cutting write-up, The Independent in the UK said it's "unlikely to win any literary awards, or go down in history as a children’s classic" and that when they read the story to a group of kids, "the story failed to grab and keep the attention of the younger kids, notoriously a tricky crowd."
Claire Allfree of
The Daily Telegraph described the book as “semi-literate” and added, "one wonders how any publisher could have thought fit to publish this grammar-defying set of badly rhyming cod homilies, let alone think any child anywhere would want to read it."
Alex Connell of
The Times in the UK said the book is "so lacking in action and jeopardy, you half wonder if the writing job was delegated to a piece of furniture."
via GIPHY
It burns.
The Evening Standard didn't hate The Bench, and in fact found it a little emotional, but
their review still wasn't exactly glowing: "The Duchess of Sussex's writing is soothing, loving, although a little schmaltzy in places."
We could go on, but this roast has turned into an inferno.
On the upside, The Bench is currently scoring 4.1 out of a possible 5 on Amazon and sitting at no. 41 on the list of children's books.
...And we're all talking about it. So, who's the real winner here?
