‘Sad and Pathetic,’ One Says : Critics Underwhelmed by Andrew’s Photo Book

LONDON —  Nobody cheered today when Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second son, published a book of his admittedly amateur photographs. Not even Andrew.

“Sad and pathetic pictures,” one critic said of the 25-year-old prince’s snapshots.

“This is a book by me, tyro-photographer, rather than by me, member of the Royal Family,” Andrew said of “Photographs.”

“I am the first to grant that some people would see this book as being published because of who I am,” Andrew wrote in its introduction.

He agreed to a radio interview to publicize the book, which one critic said “seems to need all the help it can get.”

The book contains several shots of the queen walking her dogs in private that would be permitted to no other photographer, although Andrew said his royal relations duck when they spot him with a camera.

His photographs also chronicle his travels as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot and his friendship with a few show business ladies.

Ironically the most famous of those, Koo Stark, published her own book of photographs two weeks ago. Critics were distinctly underwhelmed by that one too.