Description

From one of the funniest writers of our time, the award-winning author of One Two Three Four and Ma’am Darling turns his attention to Queen Elizabeth II in an unforgettable and fascinating biography.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘A crown jewel among royal biographies’ OBSERVER

‘Extraordinarily original, enlightening and fresh’ SPECTATOR

‘Absolutely fascinating’ Ruth Langsford, LOOSE WOMEN

‘A very unusual masterpiece’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

‘Brilliantly funny and well-researched’ FINANCIAL TIMES

Virginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annex; Jimi Hendrix played her tune; Haile Selassie gave her a gold tiara; Dirk Bogarde watched Death in Venice with her; Andy Warhol envied her fame; Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy.

Queen Elizabeth II was famous for longer than anyone who has ever lived. When people spoke of her, they spoke of themselves; when they dreamed of her, they dreamed of themselves. She mirrored their hopes and anxieties. To the optimist, she seemed an optimist; to the pessimist, a pessimist; to the awestruck, charismatic; and to the cynical, humdrum. Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation.

Combining biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire, the bestselling and award-winning author of Ma’am Darling and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this most public yet private of sovereigns.

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‘An enthralling reverie on memory, identity, coincidence and meaning – testing, teasing, charming, moving and deceptively wise’ RORY STEWART

‘An entertaining and revealing digest … fascinating … Craig Brown has captured something essential about Britain’s curious relationship with royalty’TLS

‘Completely and utterly brilliant and exquisitely funny and fascinating. This book is, dare I say, majestic. Craig Brown has no peers – I would curtsey to him if I met him’ MARINA HYDE

‘It is a strength of Brown’s excavating talents that he can fill 650 pages with so many attendant gems’THE TIMES

‘Wonderfully readable … At once sympathetic but clear-eyed, kind but sharp’ NEW STATESMAN

‘Brown is as sharp and dryly funny as his subject’EVENING STANDARD

‘You wouldn’t think the world needed another book about Queen Elizabeth – but how wrong you’d be. Craig Brown’s wholly original and enthralling biography is absolute heaven from start to finish’ INDIA KNIGHT

‘Craig Brown continues to reinvent the art of biography… utterly fascinating’ JASON COWLEY

Craig Brown’s book One Two Three Four won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2020.

Publisher Review

'Brown understands the simple paradox: that the only way to write insightfully about the Queen is to write entirely around the Queen ... Brilliantly funny [and] perceptive'FINANCIAL TIMES 'Brown sees, correctly, that comedy is a part of all that is serious, and by laughing at things we have a better understanding of their nature ... Most of all in this magnificent book we have a sense of the monarch being looked at freshly, without any prejudice or point to prove, and with a real understanding of human complexity ... It is hard to think that a more thoughtful book on its subject will be published for many years' PHILIP HENSHER, SPECTATOR 'This is a book about ourselves as a nation, reflected and refracted through our own relationships with one person, or our ideas of that person... Brown's method is worth describing because it amounts almost to a new kind of history... He is by turns affectionate and scornful, but always absorbed...Stuffed with trash, this is a deeply serious book' MATTHEW PARIS, LITERARY REVIEW 'A very unusual masterpiece ... teems with facts, humour and intelligence ... I enjoyed A Voyage Around the Queen so much that I wished it were longer than its 672 pages' CHRISTOPHER HOWSE, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Brown gives an astute account of the wellnigh unaccountable public life of an intensely private person ... In any case, he has performed the task with admirable zeal. The book is crammed with facts, statistics, anecdotes, and much of it is gloriously bizarre...' JOHN BANVILLE, GUARDIAN Brown has given us a serious reflection on the nature of power and why institutions such as the monarchy, in the right hands, can provide a society with stability and a sense of continuity, especially in turbulent times' NEW STATESMAN 'Rich in vignettes, but also has a revelatory depth ... thought-provoking, perhaps even deep ... a vivid and remarkably telling study of our late head of state, and even more so of the people she reigned over for 70 years' STEPHEN SMITH, OBSERVER