The Queen Mother: The Official Biography
Product Description
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 changin… More >>
This book is well researched and well written. It is over 900 pages in length. It is also filled with footnotes that once you read them adds little to the content of the book.
There is really nothing new in this book. If you, like me, are a student of The Queen Mother’s life and times it is really just the retelling of the same old story.
The photos are good and some of them have not been seen before.
If true be told the book is a tad too long! I found myself skipping pages that I found very uninteresting.
I did enjoy when Princess Elizabeth wrote to her mother and encouraged both her parents to stop using “We Four”. She pointed out to them they now had a son-in-law and he needed to be included in the family unit!
Rating: 3 / 5
I always thought of the Queen Mother as a sweet old lady (because that was all she was during my lifetime) but after reading her “official” biography, I have much more respect for her. What a wondrous life she led.
Rating: 5 / 5
very good but a bit detailed in all the crhronological details of her daily duties
Rating: 4 / 5
Biography is good, although too long considering the amount of writing already in existence about the QM. Her personal thoughts and feelings as expressed through her letters are nice to read, but they seem to run together after a few chapters. I haven’t learned much that I didn’t already know about the QM from this work.
Rating: 3 / 5
Eventhough with the majority of biographies you always know the ending, I still cried a little at William Shawcross’s description of the Queen Mother’s funeral in the final pages of his fascinating book on her life.
I am British and have lived in the US for 10 years. When the Queen Mother died in 2002 I was already here and paid little attention to what was going on back home at the time, only now realizing that both she and her younger daughter died within weeks of each other. What I had also never realized (given that she was already in her late 60′s when I was born) was how much she did during the first and especially the second world wars to motivate, inspire and generally cheer up the people around her. Mr. Shawcross’s description of the King and Queen during WWII gave me a far better understanding of that time than any lessons I took at school. This account also explained the relationship between Britain and the USA, the friendships between the King & Queen and the Roosevelts and the impetus that caused the USA to at last ally with Britain during WWII.
Also during this time, and until the King’s death in 1952, the love story that was their marriage was a very rare thing to read about. His letters to her and hers to him, his wooing of her, her refusal of him and then the undying love, devotion and support that glued them together. This in itself gripped me and the description of the King’s death again bought tears because you knew that she would not be able to cope without him. But she did (albeit with a deeply hidden sadness for her husband whom she remembered with a private mass every year on the anniversary of his death until she was too frail to go to chapel at the age of 101). For the next fifty years as the Queen Mother she remained a steadfast figure in British life fulfilling many national and international engagements supporting her regiments and charities along with official government and Royal duties. Her duty to her country and its people was paramount. Her dislike of change equally so but never expressed with unkindness. In some of her letters on life and religion she may have even been one of the very first “new agers” with her theories on what love really is, the use of homoeopathic medicine and life after death. She was a fascinating woman, filled with love, kindness, an unfailing sense of duty, stamina by the ton and an enjoyment of life, always remaining positive and willing to see the funny side of things which was to take her through almost 102 years.
William Shawcross’s use of personal letters and interviews with those who knew and loved her and whom she loved in return gives the reader of this book a profound sense of who Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon really was, who she became and the legacy she leaves behind. It is a beautifully written tribute to a truly remarkable lady.
Rating: 5 / 5