Queen Elizabeth II: A Woman Who Is Not Amused - Hardcover

Davies, Nicholas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559722177 ISBN 13: 9781559722179

Publisher: Birch Lane Pr, 1994

Synopsis

An expert royalty watcher exposes the private lives of Britain's ruling dynasty, detailing Elizabeth's celibacy, Prince Philip's adulterous affairs, and the demise of Charles and Diana's and Andrew and Fergie's marriages. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

A massive, entertaining, and thoroughly unsophisticated look at the life of a woman the author believes is likely to be one of Britain's last monarchs. From the time she became queen at 26 to the present, contends Davies (Death of a Tycoon, 1993), Elizabeth has had one mission: to uphold the monarchy and all its archaic standards and practices. As a result, she has been left at the helm of one of the world's most prominent dysfunctional families. Davies rounds up every last example of bad parenting, scandal, and infidelity he can find in the House of Windsor, but most veteran crown watchers will see few surprises here. Despite his best attempts to substantiate Elizabeth's ``extramarital romance'' with one of her courtiers, Davies mainly delivers speculation. The queen, in fact, emerges looking rather saintly compared to her unfaithful husband, Philip, and her wayward children. Elizabeth comes across as fairly ordinary (she eats toast and marmalade for breakfast, watches TV, loves her dogs) and often seems little more than a 68-year-old woman with a very demanding job. Despite her wealth and a household staff of more than 300, Davies's Elizabeth embodies the dilemmas of modern womanhood--balancing the responsibilities of work and family, public and private life. Davies concludes that her priorities have not served her or the nation well, that between its heyday in the 1980s (especially in 1981 with the marriage of Charles and Diana) and 1992 (``the year the fairy tale ended''), the monarchy sowed the seeds of its own destruction and now faces possible extinction. Despite a serious final chapter offering prescriptions for reforming the monarchy, the hallmarks of this lightweight biography are wealth, power, sex, scandal, happiness that never lasts, and unnamed sources. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Having completed the obligatory Princess Di book ( Diana: A Princess and Her Troubled Marriage ), Davies, a self-styled "royal expert," here turns to beleaguered Queen Elizabeth II. He presents a conscientious, duty-driven servant of the monarchy, whose major vices appear to be feeding her corgis at table and reading the Racing Times . Although Davies also finds her cold toward children, including her own, this is hardly the stuff of bestsellers. Undaunted, Davies interweaves a standard account of the routine at "Buck House" where the Queen sits at her dispatch boxes or at tea, with graphic depictions of the alleged sexual diversions of almost everyone else in the House of Windsor. Davies singles out Prince Philip, whom he characterizes as a boorish philanderer, constantly embarassing his wife. The author claims Philip had a 20-year affair with his wife's cousin, Princess Alexandra of Yugoslavia, and that he fathered two children with a French cabaret artist. Certain scandals of sexual misconduct by assorted royals revealed here have already been chewed over by the press; other tales, the reader suspects, are hyperbole. Davies's sources are "close friends" of Elizabeth and Philip, previously published biographies and the tales of John Barratt, former valet to the late Lord Mountbatten of Burma. Taste is not high on Davies's agenda: he refers to the 94-year-old Queen Mother in the past tense, as if predicting her demise before publication date; "a substantial portion of palace staff are gay" he tells us for no apparent reason; and he ridicules Princess Anne for wearing cotton underwear. Photos. 50,000 first printing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Birch Lane Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 1559722177
• ISBN 13: 9781559722179
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 511