Purple Secret: Genes, Madness and the Royal Houses of Europe

In the 1960s a theory was advanced that King George III suffered from a rare incurable blood disorder known as porphyria. It is an inherited disorder, and questions such as were his ancestors or descendents affected also, and with what consequences are addressed. Taking advantage of the developments in DNA sequencing techniques the porphyria strain is traced through the geneological maze of Europe's royal dynasties. This leads the text to the family of the German Kaiser, to the exhumation in Poland of a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and to Patients A and X, present-day descendents of the houses of Hanover and Windsor. In a collaboration between science and history, they reach the conclusion that the royal houses of Britain and Europe are still haunted by the ghost of George III.