The Queen

In this exceptionally well-informed biography, Kenneth Harris examines the personality of the queen and the influences on the royals of family background, upbringing, and education. He asks the tough questions: Will Elizabeth II abdicate? Will Charles renounce the throne? Can the royal system as we know it survive the twentieth century?

Although this evenhanded profile of Great Britain's Elizabeth II and her family draws heavily on now familiar revelations of past and present royals, it deals with them in sober historical perspective. Harris, a staff member of the London Observer, presents Elizabeth as a woman of probity and emotional reserve who was insulated as a child in a loving but much beset family. Like the rest of the royals, she was not well educated or given to intellectual pursuits, but she has a strong curiosity and is thoroughly imbued with a sense of duty. Vivid sketches of her close relatives illumine the ambience in which she grew up and cast some light on her children's problems. The author analyzes the obstacles presented by Charles's marital problems to his assumption of the throne and suggests that the Prince of Wales may well prove worthy in time. Harris outlines economies and personnel changes at the palace that, he suggests, could rescue the monarchy from current criticism and restore to it the esteem it enjoyed as the symbol of national identity. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Harris's (Attlee, 1983) respectful biography of Elizabeth II, while well written and enjoyable to read, contains nothing that will not be familiar to any casual reader of royal biographies. The photographs, too, have all been seen before. Harris describes a hard-working and intelligent woman with an extraordinary sense of duty-a woman perhaps more devoted to her husband than her children but one who has done her best under difficult circumstances. Readers looking for scandal won't find it, although Harris does devote a chapter to the queen's family problems. If your collection includes the classics Robert Lacey's Majesty: Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor (1977) and Elizabeth Longford's The Queen: Elizabeth II of England (1983) as well as Andrew Morton's books and Douglas Keay's Elizabeth II: Portrait of a Monarch (LJ 5/15/92) or A.N. Wilson's The Rise and Fall of the House of Windsor (LJ 6/15/93), there is no pressing need to purchase this title.
Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.