num_pages: 1096
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 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 course 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.
language: English
title: The Queen Mother: The Official Biography
publisher: Alfred A. Knopf