Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
When Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon accepted the hand of Prince Albert, Duke of York, in January 1923, she embarked on a journey that would make her one of the most popular and best-loved royal ladies ever to occupy the British throne.
“Ever since I can remember, my grandmother has been the most wonderful example of fun, laughter, warmth, infinite security and, above all, exquisite taste,” writes her grandson Prince Charles, and Robert Lacey skilfully extracts and analyses her magic. From the early days when she was occupied in supporting her nervous and sensitive husband, the future George VI, to the grim time of the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936 and of war, when she insisted on remaining in London, to her years of widowhood, Lacey shows how the Queen Mother’s skill, judgement, and endearing motherliness have steered her through the difficult times and enabled her to win the affection of the British people. His portrait reveals a woman of grace and spirit whose sense of fun has never diminished and whose principles have never been allowed to slip.
