Counting One's Blessings: The Selected Letters Of Queen Elizabeth

Full of wit, hilarity, acute observation and a deeply held sense of duty, the Queen Mother’s letters constitute a chronicle both of her long life and of the 20th century

One of the great revelations of William Shawcross’s official biography of the Queen Mother was her private correspondence. Indeed, the Sunday Times described her letters as “wonderful . . .brimful of liveliness and irreverence, steeliness and sweetness.”

Now, drawing on the vast wealth of material in the Royal Archives and at Glamis Castle and elsewhere, William Shawcross has put together a selection of those letters, many of which have never before been published. A prolific correspondent from her earliest childhood to the very end of her life, her letters offer readers a vivid insight into the person behind the public face.

They reveal—in her own words—the much-loved little girl who wrote teasing letters to her many siblings; the young woman who, after a long courtship and two refusals, accepted Prince Albert’s proposal. We see her as Duchess of York, bringing a sense of ease and fun into the public and private lives of the Royal Family. We see her delight in her beloved daughters, and her very real shock when she and her husband realized that he would become king following the abdication of Edward VIII. We see, too, the dreadful toll exacted by the Second World War, which culminated in the king’s tragically early death in 1952, and then her determination, despite her grief, to find a new role for herself during the long years of widowhood.

WILLIAM SHAWCROSS became a writer after leaving University College, Oxford, in 1968. He was in Czechoslovakia during the Soviet occupation; his stay there inspired his first book, a biography of Alexander Dubcek, the Czechoslovak leader, which was published in 1970. In 1995,he wrote the BBC Television series Monarchy. In 2002, his BBC Television series and book Queen and Country celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and examined the changing face of Britain duringher reign. His official biography of the Queen Mother was published to great acclaim in 2009. He lives in England.

WEB: williamshawcross.com