Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

Mountbatten of Burma. From left: Princess Anne, the Queen Mother, Captain Mark Phillips, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Prince Philip, and Prince Edward, September 5, 1979. Associated Press/TopFoto/The Image Works

Her life in the Highlands offers the Queen a taste of normality, and a sense of freedom.

Elizabeth II laughing at the Braemar Games near Balmoral Castle as the Queen Mother, Diana, and Charles join in, September 1982. ©Mirrorpix

“Come show me this lions’ cage of yours,” said Elizabeth II. “Do I need a whip and a chair?”

The Queen in the indoor riding school at Windsor Castle with Monty Roberts, the “horse whisperer” from California, before he demonstrated his technique for “starting” horses, April 10, 1989. Photograph by Pat Roberts

“It’s the American way,” Frazier said afterward. “I couldn’t stop myself.”

The Queen being hugged by sixty-seven-year-old Alice Frazier during a visit to Frazier’s home in Washington, D.C., May 15, 1991. Associated Press

Prince William “has no desire to climb the ladder of kingship before his time.”

Prince Charles and his sons, William and Harry, second and third in line to the throne, after Harry’s graduation from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where William was also training, April 12, 2006. Ian Jones Photography

She had first glimpsed the future prime minister when he appeared at age eight with her son, Prince Edward, in a school production of Toad of Toad Hall.

The eighty-four-year-old Queen greeting forty-three-year-old David Cameron, her twelfth prime minister, as he arrives at Buckingham Palace to “kiss hands,” May 11, 2010. Ian Jones Photography

“To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deepest sympathy.”

Queen Elizabeth II after laying a wreath in the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin on May 17, 2011, during her four-day state visit to Ireland, the first since her grandfather, King George V, toured Dublin a century earlier. Arthur Edwards/AFP/Getty Images

David Cameron called William and Catherine “the team of the future.”

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Derby Day, Epsom Racecourse, June 4, 2011. Ian Jones Photography

“Her reputation now is as high as at any time since the golden early years when everyone was intensely loyal to the new Queen, and Churchill was flat on his back with admiration.”

The royal family on the Buckingham Palace balcony after the Trooping the Colour ceremony officially marking the Queen’s eighty-fifth birthday, June 11, 2011. Ian Jones Photography

For Stephen

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the spring of 2008, Gina Centrello, president and publisher of Random House, suggested that I write a book about Queen Elizabeth II, to be published in conjunction with her Diamond Jubilee marking sixty years on the throne. I instantly said yes.

Elizabeth II is at once the most public and most private woman in the world, and my challenge was to show her private side while explaining how she has handled her public role—to portray her in the round, in many different settings, surrounded by a great cast of characters. As an American, I thought I could bring a fresh perspective, enhanced by more than a quarter century of frequent visits to Britain, which have led to numerous friendships and family ties as well.

This is not an authorized account of her reign; the royal family will not choose an official biographer until after she dies. But the staff at Buckingham Palace gave me invaluable assistance. They opened doors, offered guidance and information, and arranged for me to watch the Queen and Prince Philip in action—on overseas and domestic tours as well as at key events on the yearly royal calendar, including an investiture, a state visit, a Buckingham Palace garden party, and the Maundy Service. I also met the Queen at a garden party at the British ambassador’s residence in Washington and at two private parties at St. James’s Palace.

The Queen has a firm policy against granting interviews, but I was gratified that people who have known her from many angles—family, close friends, senior advisers, religious leaders, politicians, diplomats, world leaders, generals, artists, horse trainers, dog handlers, and estate managers among them—were willing to share their insights and knowledge. I also visited all the Queen’s homes in England and Scotland as well as the royal yacht Britannia, took a private tour of the Royal Stud at Sandringham, and spent the night at the Queen Mother’s Castle of Mey.

To conduct my research I spent six months in the United Kingdom, and I was blessed by the hospitality of my dear friends Joan and Bernie Carl, whose apartment on the top floor of their London home became the “writer’s roost” I had first enjoyed while researching my book on Diana, Princess of Wales. During my long stays, Pauline Taplin and Tony Stephens looked after me with care and thoughtfulness. For Joan and Bernie’s exceptional generosity, I am eternally grateful.

Of the more than two hundred people I interviewed, about forty asked to remain anonymous. I am indebted to everyone for taking the time out of their busy lives to assist me. Many thanks to those who spoke on the record:

Lord Airlie, Canon John Andrew, Charles Anson, Lady Elizabeth Anson, Lady Avon, Pamela Bailey, Ian Balding, Bruce Bent, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Peter Brown, Ruth Buchanan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Lady Frances Campbell-Preston, Lord Carey, Lady Carnarvon, Lady Charteris, Lady Mary Clayton, Mark Collins, Mina Jones Cox, the late Lady Cromer, Susan Cunliffe-Lister, Lady Dartmouth, Jackie Davis, Carolyn Deaver, the Dowager