The Queen Mother: The Official 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 Charlesand the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyonthe ninth of the Earl of Strathmores ten childrenwas 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 Shawcrossgiven unrestricted access to the Queen Mothers personal papers, letters, and diariesgives 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 Queenthe last Edwardian, the charming survivor of a long-lost erarepresenting her nation at home and abroad . . . the matriarch of the Royal Family and the nations best-loved grandmother.

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