The Queen Mother: The Official Biography

Summary (from the publishers): The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince Charles—and the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon—the ninth of the Earl of Strathmore’s ten children—was born on August 4, 1900, and, certainly, no one could have imagined that her long life (she died in 2002) would come to reflect a changing nation over the course of an entire century. Now, William Shawcross—given unrestricted access to the Queen Mother’s personal papers, letters, and diaries—gives us a portrait of unprecedented vividness and detail. Here is the girl who helped convalescing soldiers during the First World War . . . the young Duchess of York helping her reluctant husband assume the throne when his brother abdicated . . . the Queen refusing to take refuge from the bombing of London, risking her own life to instill courage and hope in others who were living through the Blitz . . . the dowager Queen—the last Edwardian, the charming survivor of a long-lost era—representing her nation at home and abroad . . . the matriarch of the Royal Family and “the nation’s best-loved grandmother.”

A revelatory royal biography that is, as well, a singular history of Britain in the twentieth century.

 

Review: Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was born in 1900 and was the ninth of the Earl of Strathmore's ten children. Although born to a well to do, aristocratic family, likely no one, including Elizabeth herself, would have guessed that she would die in 2002 as the Queen Mother of Queen Elizabeth II. After a very happy and carefree childhood amongst her close family, Elizabeth finally agreed to marry the Duke of York. After her initial hesitation, the two appeared to have had a loving and close marriage and two beloved daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. Although she married the second son of King Edward V, Elizabeth likely never anticipated that her husband's brother, the Prince of Wales would abdicate his throne for a divorced woman, making her husband King of England. Elizabeth became a much adored and devoted queen, particularly during World War II, when she and the king risked their lives to remain in London during the Blitz. After the king's death in his fifties, the Queen Mother continued to carry out hundreds of royal engagements each year and represent the Royal Family internationally up until her ninth decade. She was a charismatic and kind ruler and the matriarch of the Royal Family we still love and admire today. 

 

I loved learning more about the Queen Mother and her family through this book. I had no idea how hard the Duke had to work to get her to accept his marriage proposal. It wasn't until his third attempt that she finally agreed to marry him. I was impressed by her discretion; she refused to discuss the royal family, even with members of her own family. I was also moved by her sense of duty to her country and the countless organizations for which she served as patron.  Throughout her eighties, she continued to carry out around one hundred official engagements annually (765). I also saw Prince Charles in a different light in this book as I had no idea that he was so close and so devoted to his grandmother. In many ways, this book allowed me to learn more about Queen Elizabeth II's childhood and upbringing, through examination of the life of her mother, with whom she was very close.

 

With any book that is written with royal permission, the transparency of the text comes under question. The author does try to address this in the preface, stating, "I was encouraged to write what I wished" and "the decision on what to publish remained mine alone" (xxiv). Shawcross certainly does include details that the Queen Mother would likely not have liked to remember - such as embarrassing gaffes while on royal tours, scandal within the royal family, and negative quotes about her from those who knew her. For example,  one criticism repeated several times was the fact that the Queen Mother had a very lackadaisical approach to her daughters' education and both princesses "felt under-educated" as a result of it (623). On the other hand, surely the fact that the Royal Family would be reading the manuscript made an impact on what the author chose to highlight in this biography. As this is the only biography of the Queen Mother I have read, it's difficult to know what, if anything, has been glossed over or omitted entirely.

 

This book is a daunting read. It stands at nearly one thousand pages and is even heavy to hold upright. That being said, I do think there were subjects that were more skimmed over than others. For instance, after the birth of their second daughter Margaret, both the Queen Mother and her husband are quoted as hoping for future children yet no other children were ever born to them. The author never addresses this, likely because it is a delicate subject. Yet reams of the book are devoted to detailed descriptions of the Queen Mother's many royal engagements and trips. I would have preferred to have seen more details of his personal life, which likely were omitted or skated around due to the sensitivity of the author in writing this "official biography."

 

There is an abrupt shift in the final chapters of the book from a chronological sequence of events to a summary of the final decades of Elizabeth's life. This is likely due to her status as dowager queen and the similarity of many years of patterned behavior in her old age, yet I found these chapters less interesting and somewhat harder to follow regarding the passage of time than the first three quarters of the book.

 

This book certainly underscores the "arduous profession" of royalty: "Their daily tasks, for months ahead, are prescribed and set out in a diary of engagements for which only illness can excuse them. None but those trained from youth to such an ordeal can sustain it with amiability and composure. The royal motto 'ich dien' is no empty phrase. It means what it says - I serve" (761). Although not born to the task, the Queen Mother proved more than willing to serve. As a new bride, she quickly won over the royal family and she continued to win over the hearts of those who met her until her death. Upon her death at the age of 101, the royal family received more than 30,000 messages and "extra staff had to be brought in, some of whom worked twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week for a month, to reply to all well-wishers" (861). In many ways, the legacy of the current British Monarchy owe greatly to this epitome of a gracious ruler.

 

Stars: 4