The Queen

The BBC iPlayer has Andrew Marr's series The Diamond Queen with an interview between Robert Lacey and Andrew Marr. "Andrew Marr looks at the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II. In this episode, with remarkable archive footage, Marr tells the story of the young girl who never expected to reign."

"Robert Lacey, author of A Brief Life of the Queen, says she would have been prepared for the news, even if her father's death from a coronary thrombosis was a shock.

"Her private secretary carried sealed envelopes containing a draft Accession Declaration. She was ready but it was a secret that was shared with few people."

It is said that she reacted stoically, and showed little immediate distress. "She was sitting erect, fully accepting her destiny," Martin Charteris is quoted as saying in Lacey's book. No-one saw any tears."

Today’s Daily Mail carries the second instalment of their adaptation of my new book “A Brief Life of the Queen” under the headline of;

“Changing greasy tyres, knitting socks and the making of a very modest Monarch"
"In this major series on the Queen, an eminent royal author reassesses her formative years and reveals how a singular lack of ego became the secret of her greatness”

Serialised in today’s Daily Mail Newspaper excerpts from my new book on Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth – A brief life of the Queen.

Update Jan 28 2012 - 14:13 Video content has been added to the A brief life of the Queen website

“The truth about Diana and The Queen: How monarch was Princess's greatest supporter... until THAT Martin Bashir documentary”

A brief life of the Queen is available from Amazon.co.uk and for pre-order from Amazon.com

Here is the text in full of the Queen's 2011 Christmas message, which was recorded by the BBC on 9 December - before her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, was treated in hospital for a blocked coronary artery.

"In this past year my family and I have been inspired by the courage and hope we have seen in so many ways in Britain, in the Commonwealth and around the world.