Mark Hollingsworth's Reviews > The Queen Mother: The Official Biography

The author was given exclusive access to the archives of the Royal family to write this biography. As a result it is a warm and generous, yet balanced, perspective on the life of the Queen Mother. More importantly it is a unique perspective on the history of the 20th century, with the Queen Mother being born in 1900 and living for over 100 years.

You cannot but help feel a great deal of sympathy for her as you read this book. Growing up in the period of the First World War, when her house became a military hospital, and so many of her friends were killed in that most tragic conflict. Then a reluctance to marry into the Royal family, eventually gave way to love for the future King George. The author captures wonderfully the relationship between the Queen Mother and the Royal family, and handles with care and considerable skill that most difficult period of the abdication in 1936 of King Edward brought about by his relationship with Mrs Simpson. You feel the immense burden that fell upon the Queen Mother, the new king George, and her 2 daughters, one of whom of course goes on to be Queen herself.

The rest as they say is history, and through skilled narrative, diary and letter extracts, we see the Queen Mother emerge from the tragedy of the early death of her husband, whilst still a relatively young woman and then how she handles the next 50 years of her life as a widow.

What emerges is a very human account of a remarkable woman, who was still enjoying tea from her 1940s brown china teapot, and strong dry martinis, well into her 90s! This book is an inspiration in how to enjoy life to the full.