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Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
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Written with complete access to the Queen Mother's personal letters and diaries, William Shawcross' riveting biography is the truly definitive account of this remarkable woman, whose life spanned the twentieth century. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4 August 1900. Drawing on her private correspondence and other unpublished material from the Royal Archives, William Shawcross vividly reveals the witty girl who endeared herself to soldiers convalescing at Glamis in the First World War; the assured young Duchess of York; the Queen, at last feeling able to look the East End in the face at the height of the Blitz; the Queen Mother, representing the nation at home and abroad throughout her long widowhood. 'This splendid biography captures something of the warm glow that she brought to every event and encounter. It also reveals a deeper and more interesting character, forged by good sense, love of country, duty, humour and an instinct for what is right. This is a wonderful book, authoritative, frank and entertaining' - "Daily Telegraph".
Über den Autor
William Shawcross became a writer after leaving University College, Oxford in 1968. Since then he has written and travelled widely. His many books include Queen and Country, which celebrated the Queen's Golden Jubilee and was also a BBC television series.He lives in London.
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Format:Gebundene Ausgabe|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
Queen Elisabeth, The Queen Mother or just Queen Mum was a household name all over the world. I suppose all of us who read this official biography have followed her life and have personal recollections of her. She war a fixture of royal life and events in her trademark clothes and pearls, always gracious and smiling, a real character and a real lady. Most of us will have formed an opinion about her.
Writing a biography on such a personality is not an easy task. Her first biographer Hugo Vickers had spent too much energy and pages on the Queen Mother's outfits and colour schemes of her dresses. He was all a bit to "loyal" and keeping with the myth, a bit to close to her and bit too admiring. Does William Shawcross fare better?
In my view yes indeed he does, very much so. He managed to get to the bottom of her personality, her basic functioning, and her basic personality: her great zest for life, her liking of people, her sense of duty and great loyalty and her positive approach to life in general, and her great sense of humour. But he is blind to her faults. There is a balance of this book - unless the official biography on Queen Mary he does not focus at length on her childhood and rushes through the "Queen Years". Of course, this is not my first biography of the Queen Mother and therefore not much came as a surprise to me, but there are new elements to discover. First, this is the first biography were one learns about the events and her views through herself - by her fantastic letters. Oh gosh how will future biographies been written? Based on text messages and emails...?? Secondly, the relationship with The King becomes clearer and more balanced. Popular view has it that she was the strong one and that he relied on her. Yes, that is true, but she relied very much on him too. It was a partnership in the true sense: Elizabeth & Bertie, Duke and Duchess and King and Queen together.
Shawcross is critised for having avoided the difficult issues - the abdication, her real political influence, her real political views. Well, I only agree partly. I think with regards to the abdication it is pretty clear where she stood and what she thought about it. Her attitude towards the Duchess of Windsor is as well crystal clear. That she was kind to the Duchess when she stayed in BP for the funeral of the Duke of Windsor is by far no indication of Shawcross glossing over the issue and white washing the Queen Mother. When it comes to her real political influence on running the monarchy with her husband and with her daughter indeed things are a bit more difficult. The Queen Mother was very discreet (or as she put it "very cagey") when it came to putting things into writing on political issues. Her letter exchange with Queen Mary on the abdication proves this quite clearly about it. The RF talked about it. Furthermore Princess Margret had scanned the writing and ordered many letters to be destroyed. She did what Princess Beatrice did with Queen Victoria's diaries. But I feel that Shawcross could have tried to find other means to find out. The same applies to the more recent ups and downs like the Charles-Diana-Camilla saga. So there is an area which can be explored further.
Before concluding a word on Shawcross style of writing: the whole book is written with a great flow and in very entertaining way. It is easy to read, without being superficial. It is massive (2,5 kg heavy), but never boring.
All in all, I think it is an excellent biography and properly the very best official biography I have ever read. Highly recommended.
Writing a biography on such a personality is not an easy task. Her first biographer Hugo Vickers had spent too much energy and pages on the Queen Mother's outfits and colour schemes of her dresses. He was all a bit to "loyal" and keeping with the myth, a bit to close to her and bit too admiring. Does William Shawcross fare better?
In my view yes indeed he does, very much so. He managed to get to the bottom of her personality, her basic functioning, and her basic personality: her great zest for life, her liking of people, her sense of duty and great loyalty and her positive approach to life in general, and her great sense of humour. But he is blind to her faults. There is a balance of this book - unless the official biography on Queen Mary he does not focus at length on her childhood and rushes through the "Queen Years". Of course, this is not my first biography of the Queen Mother and therefore not much came as a surprise to me, but there are new elements to discover. First, this is the first biography were one learns about the events and her views through herself - by her fantastic letters. Oh gosh how will future biographies been written? Based on text messages and emails...?? Secondly, the relationship with The King becomes clearer and more balanced. Popular view has it that she was the strong one and that he relied on her. Yes, that is true, but she relied very much on him too. It was a partnership in the true sense: Elizabeth & Bertie, Duke and Duchess and King and Queen together.
Shawcross is critised for having avoided the difficult issues - the abdication, her real political influence, her real political views. Well, I only agree partly. I think with regards to the abdication it is pretty clear where she stood and what she thought about it. Her attitude towards the Duchess of Windsor is as well crystal clear. That she was kind to the Duchess when she stayed in BP for the funeral of the Duke of Windsor is by far no indication of Shawcross glossing over the issue and white washing the Queen Mother. When it comes to her real political influence on running the monarchy with her husband and with her daughter indeed things are a bit more difficult. The Queen Mother was very discreet (or as she put it "very cagey") when it came to putting things into writing on political issues. Her letter exchange with Queen Mary on the abdication proves this quite clearly about it. The RF talked about it. Furthermore Princess Margret had scanned the writing and ordered many letters to be destroyed. She did what Princess Beatrice did with Queen Victoria's diaries. But I feel that Shawcross could have tried to find other means to find out. The same applies to the more recent ups and downs like the Charles-Diana-Camilla saga. So there is an area which can be explored further.
Before concluding a word on Shawcross style of writing: the whole book is written with a great flow and in very entertaining way. It is easy to read, without being superficial. It is massive (2,5 kg heavy), but never boring.
All in all, I think it is an excellent biography and properly the very best official biography I have ever read. Highly recommended.
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Official But Revealing: A Century Through One Woman's Life
6. November 2009
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
Its important to understand that William Shawcross has written an authorized or official biography of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. That means, as Shawcross states in his Introduction, that he was invited by Queen Elizabeth II to write her mother's life. Shawcross was given access to the Royal Archives and other private collections as well as tape recorded reminiscences made by the Queen Mother herself in her final years. He also interviewed hundreds of former servants and friends. In the Introduction, Shawcross emphasizes that he was given "absolute freedom to write as I wished." There is no doubt in my mind that The Queen and Royal Family did indeed allow him to write freely, knowing that he would craft a truthful but respectful chronicle. This is by way of saying that one should not read this work expecting sensational gossip or shocking "revelations". Others have written about such things, and no doubt many more will be written in coming years. This book portrays the Queen Mother much as she herself would wish to be portrayed.
Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was born in August, 1900, the daughter of a wealthy family of Scots and English nobility. The ninth of ten children, she had a happy childhood unburdened by too much education, did nursing in World War I, and eventually made her debut with the prospect of making a brilliant match. She attracted one of the most brilliant names available, Prince Albert Duke of York, second son of King George V. After refusing him several times she agreed to marry him in 1923. She became an early royal superstar, beloved by the British for her charm and good humor. Her awkward, stammering husband gained new confidence with her help, and when his older brother abdicated in 1936, he was able, with the support of his wife, to ascend the throne and perform admirably as King George VI through World War II. After the King's death in 1952 the Queen Mother lived another fifty years, becoming an ever more greatly beloved matriarch with her bright smile, sparkling jewels, and elegant and befeathered wardrobe.
Shawcross does an admirable job detailing the Queen Mother's life, producing a detailed, almost day to day chronicle. In so doing he also provides a fairly good political history of Britain during the twentieth century albeit through the eyes of a woman whose upper class antecedents and milieu hardly made her sympathetic to many of the social reforms enacted during her lifetime. Her personal relationships with her husband, daughters, and grandchildren are also well but respectfully covered.
This is a well written biography with impeccable scholarship. If it does not satisfy the appetites of those who wish only to read scandal, it nevertheless will please those who remember the Queen Mother as a strong personality who helped guide her country and her family through some of their greatest and darkest hours.
Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was born in August, 1900, the daughter of a wealthy family of Scots and English nobility. The ninth of ten children, she had a happy childhood unburdened by too much education, did nursing in World War I, and eventually made her debut with the prospect of making a brilliant match. She attracted one of the most brilliant names available, Prince Albert Duke of York, second son of King George V. After refusing him several times she agreed to marry him in 1923. She became an early royal superstar, beloved by the British for her charm and good humor. Her awkward, stammering husband gained new confidence with her help, and when his older brother abdicated in 1936, he was able, with the support of his wife, to ascend the throne and perform admirably as King George VI through World War II. After the King's death in 1952 the Queen Mother lived another fifty years, becoming an ever more greatly beloved matriarch with her bright smile, sparkling jewels, and elegant and befeathered wardrobe.
Shawcross does an admirable job detailing the Queen Mother's life, producing a detailed, almost day to day chronicle. In so doing he also provides a fairly good political history of Britain during the twentieth century albeit through the eyes of a woman whose upper class antecedents and milieu hardly made her sympathetic to many of the social reforms enacted during her lifetime. Her personal relationships with her husband, daughters, and grandchildren are also well but respectfully covered.
This is a well written biography with impeccable scholarship. If it does not satisfy the appetites of those who wish only to read scandal, it nevertheless will please those who remember the Queen Mother as a strong personality who helped guide her country and her family through some of their greatest and darkest hours.
30 von 33 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Exhaustive, but lacks insight.
17. Februar 2010
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
How can a book so carefully compiled, so exhaustively footnoted, so completely researched be lacking? One expects an official biography to present a carefully shaded version of a life, the problem with TQM:TOB is that there is no shading at all. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon is never reflected against her peers, she exists in a bubble of her own life without much to contrast her with. While the resurfacing of the tennis courts is covered in exhaustive detail, the true information about who she was is detailed without being defined. Context is sketchy at best, with personalities left unrevealed. Just taking the section of her engagement to Prince Albert - he goes from interest in a married woman to a three year obsession with Elizabeth seemingly overnight. No other person in their lives had an opinion on this, it seems, except for glancing references to their parents being vexed over the push/pull dynamic between the two. A major suitor who would obviously be in competition is mentioned, but Elizabeth's view on him is silent. When she writes that she never thought she would say yes the reader has no idea to what she is referring. Did she think she would never marry at all? (She does state she thinks marriage is a sad day) That she would never marry Albert? What has changed her mind? Why did it need changing?
Biography, at it's strongest, lets you feel as though you have glimpsed into the heart of a person. An interested reader will study original papers (of course) and peruse many books on the same subject for a variety of perspectives on the historical figure in question. The frustrating thing about TQM:TOB is that is reads more like a compilation of source material than a portrait of a life. Elizabeth is capable. Elizabeth is sickly. Elizabeth is beloved. Elizabeth is bereaved. Elizabeth is many things, but she is never defined. She never steps out from under the crown to reveal what is unique about her person. Perhaps the fault lies in this reader - with such a wealth of source material the answers may all be contained in the book. And yet on simple questions, her voice is silent. And without context or conjecture, Mr Shawcross is silent as well. This is an exceptionally detailed book, worth reading, but not a particularly rewarding one.
Biography, at it's strongest, lets you feel as though you have glimpsed into the heart of a person. An interested reader will study original papers (of course) and peruse many books on the same subject for a variety of perspectives on the historical figure in question. The frustrating thing about TQM:TOB is that is reads more like a compilation of source material than a portrait of a life. Elizabeth is capable. Elizabeth is sickly. Elizabeth is beloved. Elizabeth is bereaved. Elizabeth is many things, but she is never defined. She never steps out from under the crown to reveal what is unique about her person. Perhaps the fault lies in this reader - with such a wealth of source material the answers may all be contained in the book. And yet on simple questions, her voice is silent. And without context or conjecture, Mr Shawcross is silent as well. This is an exceptionally detailed book, worth reading, but not a particularly rewarding one.
26 von 29 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Saint Elizabeth
15. Januar 2010
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
I was very excited to see this book come out, because there hasn't been a recent book on the Queen Mother. Mr. Shawcross' work is indeed comprehensive, filled with detail and quite well researched. That said, however, it wasn't an enjoyable read. It was almost sterile in its portrayal of a remarkable woman who lived an entire century, almost like reading a pedantic Victorian diary. Yes, she was noble, yes, she had great dignity and preserved the integrity of the British monarchy, but that said, it was tiresome. She's portrayed as a noble saint (was there no one, save the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who disliked her?) who does no wrong. It's almost as if Mr. Shawcross, who was given extensive access to the palace resources, was afraid of offending her daughter (the present Queen). I've read references to the Queen Mother in other royal books, some not so flattering accounts, including her denials that she ever refused Bertie's proposal, and she comes across to me in this book as disingenuous and remote. I wasn't looking for any kind of scandal or even anything NEW about her, but the account was dry and in the end unsatisfying. I wanted to like this book, but it just seemed to me a waste of time when I was finished with it.
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