The Times Queen Elizabeth II: Commemorating her life and reign 1926 – 2022

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The long years that the late Queen Elizabeth II reigned – the longest in British history – and the varied and various events of her family and public life have ensured that she is probably the most written about monarch ever.

Queen Elizabeth dies: The 12 books you must read about her life Queen Elizabeth dies: The 12 books you must read about her life

Bedell Smith, a former contribtuing editor to Vanity Fair, told the magazine that “one thing I tried to do was to show how isolated she was in her position as Queen and wife and mother.One of the most recent extensive biographies, published in June last year, says the “royal rhetoric in Elizabeth’s lifetime has celebrated the idea of a reigning family of ordinary people in extraordinary positions”. Drawn from seven decades of detailed and fascinating reporting by The Times, discover insights and memories of the extraordinary period of social change that was our nation's second Elizabethan age.

Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait by Gyles Brandreth review Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait by Gyles Brandreth review

He has written several other biographies and histories, including acclaimed two accounts of Saudi Arabia, The Kingdom and Inside the Kingdom. Robert Hardman rejects the idea that Elizabeth II is a monarch “harassed by one reverse after another” and claims in this most recently published, full biography of the Queen that the “declinist narrative” overlooks one key fact: the monarch “genuinely likes being the Queen”. Of course, he can’t ignore the massive changes she has weathered during her reign, and brings it bang up to date with discussion about the rift between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family. But all we learn is that she is often a remote figure, using her workload to avoid tricky family dynamics, a tactic known as ‘ostrich mode’.Most recently he has published Battle of Brothers: William, Harry and the Inside Story of a Family in Tumult. Dennison describes her as a “cautious innovator”, “a still point in the vortex of change”, someone who has outlived “national habits of deference and ignored the culture of celebrity, evanescent and meretricious”.

The Times Queen Elizabeth II by James Owen and Times Books The Times Queen Elizabeth II by James Owen and Times Books

Lacey is the historical consultant to The Crown and although the Netflix series has been criticised for its many inaccuracies, which he can’t really be blamed for, his books seem to be a different matter.She loved him deeply: “When we were married I don’t think there was such a thing as a platinum anniversary, they didn’t know we would be around that long. He negotiates the hybrid nature of Elizabeth’s life – public and private – deftly and concludes, like others, that her reign was grounded in hope, service, reassurance and selflessness. And there was to be tension between the two, just as there was to be between the Queen’s grandsons, William and Harry. Did Philip ever mutter, “I wish that jersey-wearer with alarmingly clean teeth would stop trying to trick me into saying things”?

Books About Queen Elizabeth II - The New York Times 9 Books About Queen Elizabeth II - The New York Times

Joanna Lumley, an out-and-out fan, knits it all together and says she wanted the book to be “a discovery of her (Elizabeth) through the eyes of other people . It was immediately acclaimed on publication and in his foreword to a 2012 Diamond Jubilee edition, historian Peter Hennessy said it was the “product of what happened when a leading political biographer and a top-flight historian of the 20th century . Features the Queen’s obituary, as published in The Times, a collection of essays and articles written by leading royal historians, and full-colour images from The Times archives.Andrew Morton remains best known for his 1992 book about Princess Diana and the disaster of her marriage to the new king that was written with her full, albeit secretive, cooperation.