Queen and the Country

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

With unprecedented access to the Royal Family, William Shawcross delves into the Queen's very public and intensely private lives, revealing a picture of a very human monarch. This illustrated celebration of 50 years of Elizabeth II's reign reveals her private passions such as horse racing and interviews those people who have known the Queen in this private capacity. Shawcross reveals new information about her relations with the Prime Ministers who have served under her, and her - sometimes stormy - relationships with the Royal Family. While the furore surrounding minor Royals continues, the Queen stands constant and dignified. However, even the Queen has had to adapt in her dealings with the British media as we move into an age where private lives are up-for-grabs. Queen and Country sheds light on how the Queen is looking forward to the future in 21st century Britain and who will succeed her to the throne.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Produced in cooperation with BBC Books in London and with a little help from the Palace this book celebrates Elizabeth's long reign. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, this lavishly illustrated biography attempts to portray the monarch in both her personal and public capacities. Noted journalist Shawcross (Sideshow, etc.), who had the cooperation of the Palace, has set himself a difficult task. Those covering the royals have to navigate between two extremes: the Scylla of salacious gossip and the Charybdis of dull, "officially sanctioned" Palace propaganda. Shawcross could certainly never be accused of salaciousness. The Elizabeth II he describes is unflappable and devoted to her duties as queen. Is Elizabeth, as many of the tabloids claim, a coldly detached and unfeeling individual? Shawcross thinks not. "[C]lose friends... say that though she might not reach out and hug you, she will be thoughtful and concerned about your welfare, and she is a good listener." Shawcross gives us the history of Elizabeth's long reign. As the times have changed, Shawcross contends, so has Elizabeth: "The Queen has not sat back and let the tide of events surge over her. She has responded to the demand for greater openness." Shawcross details the British tabloid wars that have raged since the 1980s and tells how the royal family has increasingly been the subject of invasive and titillating press scrutiny. The book opens and closes with the fallout from Princess Diana's death. This rather reverential biography should please fans of the British monarchy, although it won't exactly satisfy the public's rabid appetite for gossip. Agent, Lynn Nesbit. (May 3) Forecast: This has royal approbation and Shawcross's good name, but the big sales will probably to go Robert Lacey's bio, Monarch (to be reviewed in coming weeks). (Another jubilee title, The Monarchy: An Oral Biography of Elizabeth II, by Deborah Hart Strober and Gerald Strober, was published by Broadway in January. See also notes below for more jubilee-related titles.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Despite the shadow of sadness cast by the recent death of Princess Margaret, the queen's sister, the coming weeks will see an increasing number and intensity of events to honor the fiftieth anniversary of Her Majesty's ascension to the throne, culminating in Jubilee Weekend in early June, which will be heavily televised and discussed the world over. Curious library patrons could do no better than turn to respected British historian and journalist Shawcross' new book for an edifying summary of Elizabeth II's reign thus far. The author has spoken to people who know the queen to prepare this honest account of how her unassailable character has defined the success of her reign. Times in Britain and the world have changed radically since she became the sovereign upon the death of her father George VI in 1952, and the significance of the queen's tenure is that while letting the monarchy change with the times, at the same time, she has been a "small voice of calm at the vortex of the storm" by practicing the devotion to duty and diligence that she set as the hallmark of her reign. Her personal contribution to making the British Commonwealth a continuingly functioning organization and her relationships with her 10 prime ministers are points of particularly interesting discussion. --Brad Hooper

Kirkus Book Review

A richly illustrated, well-written biography of England's reigning monarch, now celebrating 50 years on the throne. Readers who remember Shawcross (Deliver Us from Evil, 2000, etc.) for his excoriating reports on the Vietnam War policies of Nixon and Kissinger may be surprised to find him penning this extended love letter to his country's figurehead. But he delivers a nuanced, highly sympathetic portrait of a woman whose story, he holds, is "one of duty done with devotion and diligence in a kingdom that has been utterly transformed around her." Shawcross often touches on just how sweeping the changes in British society have been since Elizabeth succeeded her father in 1952. To name just one instance, half a century ago, a national furor forced Princess Margaret to renounce matrimony with the divorced man she loved; since then, no royal marriage except the queen's has gone unbroken. Shawcross points out that, though plagued by bad press, Elizabeth has been highly effective in adjusting the monarchy to modern requirements. He cites in particular her remarkable job of crafting a working commonwealth from the tattered remnants of the British empire, "an achievement made possible," comments Zambian president and former opponent Kenneth Kuanda, "because of the personality of Queen Elizabeth." Shawcross writes with restraint about the tensions between Elizabeth and the late Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson, wisely suggesting that the queen came in for public criticism not so much because her daughters-in-law were right in their various complaints against their spouses, but because "one of the royal family's functions is, in writer Rebecca West's phrase, to hold up to the public a presentation of ourselves doing well.' When some of them do badly, we do not like what we see of ourselves." Essential reading for Elizabeth's admirers and a good vehicle for Americans seeking to understand the affection she commands.