From Goodreads
A personal account of the life and character of Britain's longest-reigning monarch, from the writer who knew her family best
'The writer who got closest to the human truth about our long-serving senior royals' THE TIMES
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Gyles Brandreth first met the Queen in 1968, when he was twenty.
Over the next fifty years he met her many times, both at public and at private events. Through his friendship with the Duke of Edinburgh, he was given privileged access to Elizabeth II.
He kept a record of all those encounters, and his conversations with the Queen over the years, his meetings with her family and friends, and his observations of her at close quarters are what make this very personal account of her extraordinary life uniquely fascinating.
From her childhood in the 1920s to the era of Harry and Meghan in the 2020s, from her war years at Windsor Castle to her death at Balmoral, this is both a record of a tumultuous century of royal history and a truly intimate portrait of a remarkable woman.
My thoughts
I have dipped into this book about our late Queen Elizabeth II for over a year since I started it. It's a book that I borrowed from my local Library.
I have found it quite an in depth and well written account of her life during different times throughout her life.
If you ever come across it, grab a copy as it is well worth a read in my opinion. At times it made me smile to myself and laugh out loud, at others it brought tears to my eyes. There is one thing that you can definitely say about her, she was a truly dedicated lady who put her whole life into her role as Queen and served us well.
The Queen appeared to be a religious person and obviously was seen as the head of the Church of England, below is something to me showed her dedication to both religion and her life as monarch..
Excerpt
On page 21, Gyles had been talking about a period in time that took place due to the kindness of Prince Philip getting him tickets to the State Opening of Parliament as special guests of the Queen.
He then went on to tell us the following:
'And a few days after I was elected as the Conservative MP for the City of Chester, he and the Queen happened to come to my constituency, on 16th April 1992, for the Royal Maundy Service at Chester Cathedral. At the service the sovereign ceremonially distributes small silver coins known as 'Maundy money', as symbolic alms to elderly recipients/ The name #Maundy' and the ceremony itself derive from Christ's instruction, or mandatum at the last supper that his followers should love one another. The Queen valued the service highly and only missed it five times during the course of her long reign.'
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