Writer Paul Rudnick scores with a witty, regal romance novel

Rudnick shares in the overwhelming fascination with the British royal family and weaves in references to Brexit, Buckingham Palace and “The Great British Bake Off.”

“What I really love about Paul is that he gives such specificity to his characters so that even if he’s making them larger to life, they still feel very human and relatable because it’s the details that really bring them to life,” said Cindy Hwang, his editor at Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

The book arrives on a wave of interest in the royals, especially in Prince Harry and his biracial American wife, Meghan, who are redefining who belongs in the House of Windsor.

“It just felt like there was something in the air,” says Rudnick. “There was sort of a sense of inevitability that, ‘OK, the royal family is progressing and this sort of romance is becoming far more possible.’”

Rudnick’s plays include “Jeffrey” and “I Hate Hamlet.” His screenplays include ”Sister Act,” “Addams Family Values,” “Jeffrey” and “In & Out.” With the new book, he painted a cheerfully progressive, LGBTQ-respecting world.

“There are so many completely valid and very necessary stories of prejudice against gay people and the trauma of coming out and family oppression,” he says. “But there also needs to be a balance of completely joyous queer love stories and stories about people who are wildly and openly gay and that’s just a given.”