
Purchase
The Official Biography
Knopf
October 2009
On Sale: October 20, 2009
1120 pages ISBN: 1400043042 EAN: 9781400043040 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Biography
The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince Charlesโand the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century.
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyonโthe ninth of the Earl of Strathmoreโs ten childrenโwas 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 ourse of an entire century. Now, William Shawcrossโgiven unrestricted access to the Queen Motherโs personal papers, letters, and diariesโgives 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 Queenโthe last Edwardian, the charming survivor of a long-lost eraโrepresenting her nation at home and abroad . . . the matriarch of the Royal Family and โthe nationโs best-loved grandmother.โ
A revelatory royal biography that is, as well, a singular history of Britain in the twentieth century.
 Media BuzzGood Morning America - October 21, 2009 Good Morning America - September 17, 2009
|