A brilliant and enjoyable novel on the life of a modern monarch.
Queen Elizabeth II has been the subject of unprecedented scrutiny since her accession to the throne in 1952 at the age of twenty-five. But how well do we truly know the world’s most renowned monarch under the cloud of glitz and gossip? Using numerous interviews and never-before-seen documents, acclaimed biographer Sally Bedell Smith pulls back the curtain to reveal the public and private lives of Queen Elizabeth II, who has led her country and Commonwealth with unparalleled composure, intelligence, and grace through the wars and upheavals of the last sixty years.
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When her uncle abdicates the throne, the little girl we meet in Elizabeth the Queen unexpectedly finds herself the “heiress presumptive.” Lilibet, a teenage navy cadet, is introduced to us when she is thirteen years old and becomes determined to marry Philip despite her parents’ preference for the wealthier English aristocracy. During World War II, we witness a young Lilibet fixing army trucks, and on V-E Day, she is shown with Winston Churchill on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. The young Queen is seen as she tries to manage the obligations of her career by being a mother to two small children.
“This magnificent biography of Queen Elizabeth II is a close-up perspective of the queen we’ve only known from afar and a riveting glimpse into the last great monarchy.”
The Book Guide® Editor
Sally Bedell Smith takes us behind the palace walls and into the Queen’s daily routines, including the “red boxes” of documents she reviews each day, the weekly meetings she has had with twelve prime ministers, her physically taxing trips abroad, and the constant press scrutiny, as well as her personal relationships: with Prince Philip, her husband of 64 years and the love of her life; with her children and their frequently disastrous marriages.
Elizabeth the Queen (2011) by Sally Bedell
Dune (2007) By: Glennon Doyle-
by The Book Guide® Editors4.7/5 Very good
