THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER?THE TIMES and SUNDAY TIMES BEST MEMOIR OF 2024 ... 'GENIUS'A BOOK OF THE YEAR for theSPECTATOR, MAIL ON SUNDAY, NEW STATESMAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, INDEPENDENT, TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY EXPRESSand THE TABLET.
Virginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annexe; Haile Selassie gave her a gold tiara; Dirk Bogarde watched Death in Venice with her; Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy.
Queen Elizabeth II was famous for longer than anyone who has ever lived. When people spoke of her, they spoke of themselves. To the optimist, she seemed an optimist; to the pessimist, a pessimist; to the awestruck, charismatic; and to the cynical, humdrum. Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation.
Combining biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire, the bestselling author of Ma'am Darling and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this most public yet private of sovereigns.
'An enthralling reverie on memory, identity, coincidence and meaning' RORY STEWART
'Exquisitely funny and fascinating. This book is, dare I say, majestic' MARINA HYDE
