Elizabeth

Summary (from the publisher): Called fascinatingly complex by The Wall Street Journal, this New York Times bestseller is the first biography of Great Britain's current monarch written by a palace insider--Sarah Bradford, the Viscountess Bangor. This definitive, widely-praised biography includes many never-before-seen photographs.

 

Review: This book presents a comprehensive biography of Queen Elizabeth II. Although somewhat dated, having been published in 1996, it provides a detailed account of the Queen's family background, childhood, marriage, the first decades of her reign, as well as an overview of her children's early lives.

 

One element that I appreciated about this book (and consequently likely not appreciated by the royals), is that it was not an official biography authorized by the royal family. This allows the author significant leeway to be more frank and divulge insight that otherwise might have been omitted from the text. For example, there is a long discussion about the Queen Mother's difficulty in combating jealousy when her daughter ascended the throne: "Apart from her grief at the loss of her husband, the  Queen Mother could not help feeling jealous of her daughter, who had suddenly become the focus of all the attention and the possessor of all the power that had recently been her" (170). There wasn't even a hint of such a difficult adjustment in the Queen Mother's official biography written by William Shawcross, likely because the author in that instance was constrained by the fact that the royal family would review the manuscript before publication. Likewise, Bradford relates her opinion with sometimes brutal honesty, such as describing the Queen's daughter Princess Anne as having "rather horse-faced looks" (341). I appreciated the candor and felt that this was a deeper insight into the royal family than other accounts I have read.

 

At times, the author segued into spending large amounts of time discussing Elizabeth's close relatives rather than closely following her. While of course her uncle's abdication from the throne and later her famous daughter-in-law's Diana's public divorce from her son were key points in her life, they seemed to consume sections of this book, leaving Elizabeth very much in the shadows. Furthermore, as 22 years have gone by since this book was published, it leaves many years of the Queen and her family's more recent years uncovered. However, this was a detailed biography that gave an insightful portrait of the woman behind the crown. I particularly loved the final chapter that described her ordinary life, including her daily habits and her pack of dogs swirling about her heels. A fascinating subject covered in great detail by Sarah Bradford.

 

Stars: 4

 

Related Titles:

• The Real Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Andrew Marr
• The Queen Mother: The Official Biography by William Shawcross
• Royal Childhood by Anna Reynolds and Lucy Peter