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Title: The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II by Ben Pimlott ISBN: 0-471-19431-X Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 28 August, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.62 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: What it must be like to sit on that Throne!!!...
Comment: ...lots of interesting, to-be-expected historical facts, dates, names, places, political intrigue, etc. (this is NOT a short book), but numerous anecdotes turned what could otherwise have been a dry historical narrative into a really enjoyable read---everyday life stories, palace gossip, and comical happenings of the Family Royal---examples: Queen Mary used to refer to granddaughter QE2 as "the little bambino"...and, though the death of Edward VIII was in no way a laughing matter, the description of how the Palace treated Wallis was really a scream.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Woman Who Wears the Crown
Comment: This book goes into extreme depth of the life of the fifth longest reigning monarch in British history, Queen Elizabeth II. What she is like, what she must do as her position as the Queen, and what she stands for are a few of the questions that are answered in this biography by Ben Pimlott. Reading the book was an interesting and enjoyable experience that helps to understand the stresses of living life as a monarch.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Queen has Sold Her Heritage
Comment: With the Constitutionally-mandated reduction in the sovereign's power in the past hundred years, it's easy to see the Queen of England as a figurehead. A mascot, if you will, whose only powers are to be advised and to consent. A study of Ben Pimlott's nearly seven hundred pages will teach you why this has happened, particularly in the last nearly fifty years.
The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II is something of an oddity in today's world--a study of the political power the monarch still holds and how that power has been wielded (or not) during the current reign. It's fascinating, and in a world filled with tawdry junk bios about the private lives of the Royal Family, this factual reference book is a gem.
It's true the Queen commands less politically than any of her predecessors, but that's more her own fault than anyone else's. She appears to have CHOSEN, for some reason known only to her, to reign but not rule. Even her father, George VI, that most dutiful of monarchs, often made important decisions in critical situations---and no one questioned him because he was the King. His daughter has spent her reign, since 1952, playing it safe, never pushing the Constitutional line between Sovereign and Government. Because the line's never been pushed by the Queen, the Government has encroached ever more obviously onto what was once unquestionably the Monarch's territory.
It would be difficult for the Queen to push back now; she's already given up too much. It will be nearly impossible for the next monarch (most likely Prince Charles) to recover lost ground; he will most likely be only a ceremonial king, in the manner of the Danes and Swedes. Elizabeth II has allowed herself, her decendants, and the British monarchy itself to become Constitutionally hemmed in, and it's doubtful they'll ever cut their way out.
Pimlott explains all of this with several examples of laws passed since 1952, each limiting the sovereign's power a bit more. The Queen has, for whatever reason, not refused her signature to any of these laws though, technically, she still has that right.
Elizabeth II: A Biography is well-written and exhaustively referenced. The many photographs included aren't the ones that always show up in biographies about the Royal Family; there are several I've never seen before. There are no anonymous sources to question; everyone is either well-known, or he/she is explained to the reader. This may be a better book for English readers than for Americans, since several of the matters discussed pertain only to the English, and Americans may be bored by the minutiae of individual British case law.
Final decision: A tad dry, but the best examination of Elizabeth II's reign I've seen.
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Title: Edward the Caresser: The Playboy Prince Who Became Edward VII by Stanley Weintraub ISBN: 0684853183 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 23 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: A Royal Duty by Paul Burrell ISBN: 0399151729 Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Pub. Date: 25 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham ISBN: 0375505008 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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