Elizabeth the Queen

Beginning with her girlhood years as Princess Elizabeth of York and following her and the rest of the royal family up through the Trooping the Colour parade in June 2011, this is an in-depth rendering of the day-to-day and year-to-year life of the Queen. I admit to being a bit surprised by the volume of work the Queen does. Keeping up with all things political and Commonwealth-related, including a daily reading of all cables, memos, briefings, and other such government papers, requires tremendous time, patience, and, honestly, intelligence; doing this while simultaneously being unable to express an opinion or truly give advice to the Prime Minister or other government officials would be more than most mortals could bear. Certainly the Queen has time for her leisurely pursuits and hobbies – reading, riding, and all things “horsey” among them – but on the whole she does appear to work exceptionally hard.

As would be expected of a book covering the span of Elizabeth II’s reign, this one spends a fair amount of time delving into the personal lives and troubles of the royals, from Princess Margaret (once hospitalized for alcoholic hepatitis and eventually smoking and drinking herself into her grave), to the Queen’s children, whose own scandals need no introduction. While the Queen comes off as a cold, dare one say uncaring, mother, she comes off as a much more loving wife, and Prince Philip positively shines. His devotion and steadfastness are bar-none and much of the comic relief is provided by him along the way. Prince Charles, too, comes off as a highly sympathetic character, for whom I truly felt sorry by the end of the book. Diana, though – wow – the descriptions of her various fits, tantrums, refusals of treatment, discontinued treatments, and the lies, lies, lies, had me admittedly questioning William’s total reverence of her. For his sake, if nothing else, I hope Duchess Kate is cut of quite different cloth than his mother.

For me, this book did a remarkable job of taking the shine off being Queen, and the fact that Elizabeth II has carried out this duty unfailing for the past 60 years (February 6, 1952, was Accession Day), gives me respect for her, personally. On the whole, Sally Bedell Smith creates an Elizabeth who is both sympathetic and difficult to admire, and a role as Queen that is both tedious and infinitely compelling. I imagine, then, that she has got it about right.