Elizabeth

Elizabeth II was the longest-reigning sovereign in British history.

Driven by duty, sustained by faith, made happy by her dogs and her horses, she was universally respected and admired. Her funeral was a global event, her passing was mourned by millions.

On our stamps and currency and television screens, we knew her face: over ninety-six years she became the most photographed woman in the world. But what was she really like? Who was she? And what was it that made her so special?

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.