Ed Owens is a serious-minded academic, which can be a difficult gig when your specialism is royalty – a subject never given the weight it deserves. His new book, After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?, accordingly takes itself very seriously indeed. This study spans 250 years of royal history, and develops into an excoriating examination of the British monarchy today . Tinsel and tiaras have no place here, criticism abounds, and only a year after her death, with much of Britain’s commentariat still misty-eyed over the departure of the late Queen, Elizabeth II proves to be far from exempt. In fact, Owens singles out the late Queen’s long reign as one defined by “complacency, and in some respects even regression”, with the Royal institution lacking “accountability and transparency”, and Her late Majesty complicit in a projection of a “fantasy family” image that only stored up problems for the future . Fear not, however: this book has all the answers for a fresh royal future.…