Counting One's Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

William Shawcross's official biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, published in September 2009, was a huge critical and commercial success.One of the great revelations of the book was Queen Elizabeth's insightful, witty private correspondence. Indeed, The Sunday Times described her letters as "wonderful . . . brimful of liveliness and irreverence, steeliness and sweetness."

Now, in Counting One's Blessings, Shawcross has put together a selection of her letters, drawing on the vast wealth of material in the Royal Archives and at Glamis Castle. Queen Elizabeth was a prolific correspondent, from her early childhood before World War I to the very end of her long life at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and her letters offer readers a vivid insight into the real person behind the public face.

William Shawcross is a widely renowned writer and broadcaster. His books include The Queen Mother: The Official Biography and Queen and Country. In 1995 he wrote and presented the BBC television series Monarchy and in 2002, to tie in with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, he wrote and presented the BBC television series Queen and Country. He lives in London and Cornwall.