Elizabeth The Queen Mother

Packed with stunning revelations, this is the inside story of The Queen Mother from the New York Times bestselling author who first revealed the truth about Princess Diana Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother has been called the "most successful queen since Cleopatra." Her personality was so captivating that even her arch-enemy Wallis Simpson wrote about "her legendary charm." Portrayed as a selfless partner to the King in the Oscar-winning movie The King's Speech, The Queen Mother is most often remembered from her later years as the smiling granny with the pastel hats. When she died in 2002, just short of her 102nd birthday, she was praised for a long life well lived. But there was another side to her story. For the first time, Lady Colin Campbell shows us that the untold life of the Queen Mother is far more fascinating and moving than the official version that has been peddled ever since she became royal in 1923. With unparalleled sources--including members of the Royal Family, aristocrats, and friends and relatives of Elizabeth herself—this mesmerizing account takes us inside the real and sometimes astonishing world of the royal family.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4 August, 1900. Few could have imagined the profound effect she would have on Britain and its people. This official biography tells not only her story but, through it, that of the country she loved so devotedly.

Harold Nicolson called her 'the greatest Queen since Cleopatra', while Cecil Beaton called her 'a marshmallow made on a welding machine'. Stephen Tennant said: 'She looked everything that she was not: gentle, gullible, tenderness mingled with dispassionate serenity, cool, well-bred, remote. Behind this veil she schemed and vacillated, hard as nails.' Who was she? The Queen Mother's story has not yet been properly told. This was partly due to her long life, and the difficulty that always exists when a biography of a living person is attempted, partly because she was a queen - and the real person gets hidden behind the perceived image - and partly because she is hard to pin down. From her privileged aristocratic childhood, to the abdication and the problems with Diana - this book questions how she faced her challenges and crises, assess her role, how powerful she was, and how she coped. This is a candid, personal portrait of one of Britain's most loved national treasures. Hugo Vickers, an acknowledged expert on the House of Windsor, has spent seventeen years researching this book, and observed the Queen Mother in public and private over a period of forty years.

For fans of The Crown and Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret, a deliciously entertaining collection of 101 fascinating and funny anecdotes about Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother—one for each year of her life. During her lifetime, the Queen Mother was as famous for her clever quips, pointed observations, and dry-as-a-martini delivery style as she was for being a beloved royal. Now, Do Let’s Have Another Drink recounts 101 (one for each year of her remarkable life) amusing and astonishing vignettes from across her long life, including her coming of age during World War I, the abdication of her brother-in-law and her unexpected ascendance to the throne, and her half century of widowhood as her daughter reigned over the United Kingdom. Featuring new revelations and colorful anecdotes about the woman Cecil Beaton, the high society photographer, once summarized as “a marshmallow made on a welding machine,” Do Let’s Have Another Drink is a delightful celebration of one of the most consistently popular members of the royal family.

One of the revelations of William Shawcross's official biography of the Queen Mother was her private correspondence. Indeed the Sunday Times described her letters as 'wonderful ... brimful of liveliness and irreverence, steeliness and sweetness.' Queen Elizabeth was a prolific correspondent from her earliest childhood and her letters offer readers a vivid insight into the person behind the public face. They reveal - in her own words - the little girl writing to her family; the young woman who, eventually, accepted Prince Albert's proposal; the Duchess of York, embracing the public role demanded of her, on royal tours both at home and abroad. They reveal, too, her shock when she and her husband realized that he would become King, the dreadful toll exacted by the Second World War, culminating in the King's tragically early death, and her determination to find a role for herself during her long widowhood. Full of wit, acute observation and a deeply held sense of duty, Queen Elizabeth's letters offer a chronicle not only of her long life, but of the twentieth century.

Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother 1900 - 2002 presents the life of a remarkable woman. A Canadian perspective on a sovereign who created and cultivated a special relationship with Canada, it is the portrait of a queen who always evoked passionate reactions. Whether it was the anonymous soldier who vowed "to fight for that little lady," Adolf Hitler who described her as "the most dangerous woman in Europe," or the Canadian journalist who coined the expression "the Queen Mum," the Queen Mother seldom left people unmoved. Opening with the royal tour of 1939, during which Canadians first felt her personal magnetism, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother 1900 - 2002 describes Elizabeth’s background and development, relating how she made a marriage that brought her to the centre stage of public life. It traces her tender support of her shy husband, a reluctant king, shows how she began her Commonwealth role, and recalls her shock at the sudden and unexpected call to wear the Crown. Faced with the never-ending duties of a queen, Elizabeth proved capable of providing inspired leadership for a society faced with the stark prospect of destruction in a war to save the world. On the premature death of her beloved husband she became Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, a role that has shaped nearly half her life, and one in which Canada has always played an important part. The authors analyze Her Majesty’s successes and failures, both public and private, against the background of a century of violent disruption, material achievement, and incredible change.

One of the great revelations of William Shawcross’s official biography of the Queen Mother was her private correspondence. Indeed, the Sunday Times described her letters as “wonderful . . . brimful of liveliness and irreverence, steeliness and sweetness.” Now, drawing on the vast wealth of material in the Royal Archives and at Glamis Castle and elsewhere, William Shawcross has put together a selection of those letters, many of which have never before been published. A prolific correspondent from her earliest childhood to the very end of her life, her letters offer readers a vivid insight into the person behind the public face. They reveal—in her own words—the much-loved little girl who wrote teasing letters to her many siblings; the young woman who, after a long courtship and two refusals, accepted Prince Albert’s proposal. We see her as Duchess of York, bringing a sense of ease and fun into the public and private lives of the Royal Family. We see her delight in her beloved daughters, and her very real shock when she and her husband realized that he would become king following the abdication of Edward VIII. We see, too, the dreadful too exacted by the Second World War, which culminated in the king’s tragically early death in 1952, and then her determination, despite her grief, to find a new role for herself during the long years of widowhood.

She reveals the truth behind: the mystery of her birth; her intra-family relationships; how she set about getting married; her relationship with her eldest brother-in-law prior to her marriage and afterwards, when he was Prince of Wales, Edward VIII,