Queen and country : the fifty-year reign of Elizabeth II

Format:

Book

Title:

Queen and country : the fifty-year reign of Elizabeth II

Author:

Shawcross, William.

ISBN:

9780743226769

Publication Information:

New York : Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Physical Description:

240 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cm

Contents:

Preface: Death and devotion -- African queen -- New Elizabethans -- Constitutional monarch -- Changing people -- Women at work -- Royal paper chase -- Abroad and at home -- Young prime ministers -- Fifty years on -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

Summary:

The year 2002 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Elizabeth II's accession to the British throne. To celebrate this occasion, William Shawcross, an award-winning writer and journalist, has written an intimate and revealing portrait of the Queen and an absorbing narrative of how the faces of the monarchy, Britain, and the world have changed over the past fifty years. Britain today bears little resemblance to the country the Queen inherited in 1952. There is more criticism than deference; the institution of the monarchy is no longer accepted unquestioningly. Yet, as Shawcross describes here, Elizabeth's long and valiant, sometimes difficult, always challenging reign shows us a monarch who has risen admirably to the occasion and has held the country and the commonwealth together. Drawn from the BBC's landmark four-part television series, Queen and Country combines personal recollections, classic archive film, and contemporary footage, as it examines how the Queen has adapted and succeeded. Exploring several aspects of her public role, including her relationships with successive prime ministers, Shawcross shows how she has remained a fixed point in the storm, a reassuring bedrock of stability, calm, and good sense, who has earned the respect and affection of the world. With more than one hundred photographs, this volume focuses on four parts of the Queen's life. The first explores the central relationship between the Queen and her subjects. Her private life is the subject of the second part as Shawcross describes how she enjoys horse racing, her dogs, shooting, and family life. He also discusses the turbulence of her children's marriages and lives. Part III focuses on the Queen's political role as head of state and explores how close she is to the center of decision making. The final part follows Elizabeth II as she travels the globe and strengthens the ties of the commonwealth. Written with the cooperation of the Queen's family, friends, and her trusted aides, this unique portrait accompanies the celebration of her golden jubilee that will be one of the most televised and written-about events of 2002. Queen and Country is the most authoritative account of Elizabeth's reign that will appear during this year-long celebration.

Personal Subject:

Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926-2022.

Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926-2022

Subject(s):

Queens -- Great Britain -- Biography.

Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth II, 1952-2022.

Geographic Term:

Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth II, 1952-2022.

Great Britain

Genre:

collective biographies.

Biographies

History

Biographies.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	941.085092 ELIZABETH II	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Salem Main Library	921 Elizabeth II 2002	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The year 2002 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Elizabeth II's accession to the British throne. To celebrate this occasion, William Shawcross, an award-winning writer and journalist, has written an intimate and revealing portrait of the Queen and an absorbing narrative of how the faces of the monarchy, Britain, and the world have changed over the past fifty years. Britain today bears little resemblance to the country the Queen inherited in 1952. There is more criticism than deference; the institution of the monarchy is no longer accepted unquestioningly. Yet, as Shawcross describes here, Elizabeth's long and valiant, sometimes difficult, always challenging reign shows us a monarch who has risen admirably to the occasion and has held the country and the commonwealth together. Drawn from the BBC's landmark four-part television series, Queen and Country combines personal recollections, classic archive film, and contemporary footage, as it examines how the Queen has adapted and succeeded. Exploring several aspects of her public role -- including her relationships with successive prime ministers -- Shawcross shows how she has remained a fixed point in the storm, a reassuring bedrock of stability, calm, and good sense, who has earned the respect and affection of the world. With more than one hundred photographs, this volume focuses on four parts of the Queen's life. The first explores the central relationship between the Queen and her subjects. Her private life is the subject of the second part as Shawcross describes how she enjoys horse racing, her dogs, shooting, and family life. He also discusses the turbulence of her children's marriages and lives. Part III focuses on the Queen's political role as head of state and explores how close she is to the center of decision making. The final part follows Elizabeth II as she travels the globe and strengthens the ties of the commonwealth. Written with the cooperation of the Queen's family, friends, and her trusted aides, this unique portrait accompanies the celebration of her golden jubilee that will be one of the most televised and written-about events of 2002. Queen and Country is the most authoritative account of Elizabeth's reign that will appear during this year-long celebration.

Author Notes

William Shawcross (born 28 May 1946, in Sussex, England) is a widely renowned writer and broadcaster. Shawcross was educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford. His articles have appeared in the Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph, the Washington Post and the Sydney Morning Herald.

In 1995 he wrote and presented the three-part BBC television series Monarchy and in 2002, to tie-in with the Queen¿s Golden Jubilee, he again wrote and presented a landmark four-part BBC television series, Queen and Country, a revealing and intimate portrait of the Queen, and an absorbing study of the changing face of monarchy and of Britain during the past half-century. He lives in London and Cornwall.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, this lavishly illustrated biography attempts to portray the monarch in both her personal and public capacities. Noted journalist Shawcross (Sideshow, etc.), who had the cooperation of the Palace, has set himself a difficult task. Those covering the royals have to navigate between two extremes: the Scylla of salacious gossip and the Charybdis of dull, "officially sanctioned" Palace propaganda. Shawcross could certainly never be accused of salaciousness. The Elizabeth II he describes is unflappable and devoted to her duties as queen. Is Elizabeth, as many of the tabloids claim, a coldly detached and unfeeling individual? Shawcross thinks not. "[C]lose friends... say that though she might not reach out and hug you, she will be thoughtful and concerned about your welfare, and she is a good listener." Shawcross gives us the history of Elizabeth's long reign. As the times have changed, Shawcross contends, so has Elizabeth: "The Queen has not sat back and let the tide of events surge over her. She has responded to the demand for greater openness." Shawcross details the British tabloid wars that have raged since the 1980s and tells how the royal family has increasingly been the subject of invasive and titillating press scrutiny. The book opens and closes with the fallout from Princess Diana's death. This rather reverential biography should please fans of the British monarchy, although it won't exactly satisfy the public's rabid appetite for gossip. Agent, Lynn Nesbit. (May 3) Forecast: This has royal approbation and Shawcross's good name, but the big sales will probably to go Robert Lacey's bio, Monarch (to be reviewed in coming weeks). (Another jubilee title, The Monarchy: An Oral Biography of Elizabeth II, by Deborah Hart Strober and Gerald Strober, was published by Broadway in January. See also notes below for more jubilee-related titles.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Review

A richly illustrated, well-written biography of England's reigning monarch, now celebrating 50 years on the throne. Readers who remember Shawcross (Deliver Us from Evil, 2000, etc.) for his excoriating reports on the Vietnam War policies of Nixon and Kissinger may be surprised to find him penning this extended love letter to his country's figurehead. But he delivers a nuanced, highly sympathetic portrait of a woman whose story, he holds, is "one of duty done with devotion and diligence in a kingdom that has been utterly transformed around her." Shawcross often touches on just how sweeping the changes in British society have been since Elizabeth succeeded her father in 1952. To name just one instance, half a century ago, a national furor forced Princess Margaret to renounce matrimony with the divorced man she loved; since then, no royal marriage except the queen's has gone unbroken. Shawcross points out that, though plagued by bad press, Elizabeth has been highly effective in adjusting the monarchy to modern requirements. He cites in particular her remarkable job of crafting a working commonwealth from the tattered remnants of the British empire, "an achievement made possible," comments Zambian president and former opponent Kenneth Kuanda, "because of the personality of Queen Elizabeth." Shawcross writes with restraint about the tensions between Elizabeth and the late Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson, wisely suggesting that the queen came in for public criticism not so much because her daughters-in-law were right in their various complaints against their spouses, but because "one of the royal family's functions is, in writer Rebecca West's phrase, to hold up to the public a presentation of ourselves doing well.' When some of them do badly, we do not like what we see of ourselves." Essential reading for Elizabeth's admirers and a good vehicle for Americans seeking to understand the affection she commands.

Booklist Review

Despite the shadow of sadness cast by the recent death of Princess Margaret, the queen's sister, the coming weeks will see an increasing number and intensity of events to honor the fiftieth anniversary of Her Majesty's ascension to the throne, culminating in Jubilee Weekend in early June, which will be heavily televised and discussed the world over. Curious library patrons could do no better than turn to respected British historian and journalist Shawcross' new book for an edifying summary of Elizabeth II's reign thus far. The author has spoken to people who know the queen to prepare this honest account of how her unassailable character has defined the success of her reign. Times in Britain and the world have changed radically since she became the sovereign upon the death of her father George VI in 1952, and the significance of the queen's tenure is that while letting the monarchy change with the times, at the same time, she has been a "small voice of calm at the vortex of the storm" by practicing the devotion to duty and diligence that she set as the hallmark of her reign. Her personal contribution to making the British Commonwealth a continuingly functioning organization and her relationships with her 10 prime ministers are points of particularly interesting discussion. --Brad Hooper

Library Journal Review

Produced in cooperation with BBC Books in London and with a little help from the Palace this book celebrates Elizabeth's long reign. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Preface: Death and Devotion	p. 7
1 The African Queen	p. 11
2 The New Elizabethans	p. 43
3 Constitutional Monarch	p. 65
4 Changing People	p. 91
5 Women at Work	p. 119
6 The Royal Paper Chase	p. 141
7 Abroad and at Home	p. 171
8 The Young Prime Ministers	p. 199
9 Fifty Years On	p. 223
Acknowledgments	p. 238
Index	p. 238

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

Table of Contents