The Queen Mother

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 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.From the Hardcover edition.

subjects: Biography,  Queens,  Biography & Autobiography,  Nonfiction,  Elizabeth, -- Queen, consort of George VI, King of Great Britain, -- 1900-2002,  Powers and duties,  Monarchy,  History,  nyt:hardcover-nonfiction=2009-11-15,  New York Times bestseller,  Elizabeth, queen, consort of george vi, 1900-2002,  Queens, great britain,  Great britain, biography

People: Elizabeth Queen, consort of George VI, King of Great Britain (1900-2002)

Places: Great Britain