The Queen Mother

The Queen Mother Synopsis

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 changing nation over the ourse of an entire century. Now, William Shawcross-given unrestricted access to the Queen Mother's personal papers, letters, and diaries-gives 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 Queen-the last Edwardian, the charming survivor of a long-lost era-representing her nation at home and abroad . . . the matriarch of the Royal Family and "the nation's best-loved grandmother."

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