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Q: A Voyage Around the Queen
With equal measures of wit and wisdom, the author of 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret draws a deeply original, hilarious, and telling portrait of the Queen herself.
She was the most famous person on earth; she first appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of three. When she died, few people were old enough to recall a time when she was not alive.
Her likeness has been reproduced—in photographs, on stamps, on the notes and coins of thirty different currencies—more than any since Jesus. It is probable that, over the course of her ninety-six years, she was introduced to a greater number of different people than anyone else who has ever lived—likely well over half a million. Yet this most closely observed of all women rarely left any real impression on those she encountered beyond vague notions of her "radiance" and "sense of duty." A high proportion of those she met can remember what they said to her, but not a word of what she said to them.
Up until now, the curious tactic employed by biographers of the Queen has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown, the author of 150 Glimpses of the Beatles and Hello Goodbye Hello, rejects this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to the most famous—and most guarded— woman on earth, examining the Queen through a succession of interlocking prisms. With Q, this fantastically funny, marvelously insightful journalist gives us an unforgettable portrait of the omnipresent, elusive Queen Elizabeth II.
She was the most famous person on earth; she first appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of three. When she died, few people were old enough to recall a time when she was not alive.
Her likeness has been reproduced—in photographs, on stamps, on the notes and coins of thirty different currencies—more than any since Jesus. It is probable that, over the course of her ninety-six years, she was introduced to a greater number of different people than anyone else who has ever lived—likely well over half a million. Yet this most closely observed of all women rarely left any real impression on those she encountered beyond vague notions of her "radiance" and "sense of duty." A high proportion of those she met can remember what they said to her, but not a word of what she said to them.
Up until now, the curious tactic employed by biographers of the Queen has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown, the author of 150 Glimpses of the Beatles and Hello Goodbye Hello, rejects this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to the most famous—and most guarded— woman on earth, examining the Queen through a succession of interlocking prisms. With Q, this fantastically funny, marvelously insightful journalist gives us an unforgettable portrait of the omnipresent, elusive Queen Elizabeth II.
673 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 1, 2024
535 people are currently reading
5915 people want to read
About the author
Craig Brown
63 books123 followersCraig Edward Moncrieff Brown (born 23 May 1957, Hayes, Middlesex) is a British critic and satirist from England, probably best known for his work in British magazine Private Eye.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 212 reviews
September 28, 2024
A Voyage Around The Queen is, almost inevitably, less irreverent than Brown’s biography of Princess Margaret, Ma’am Darling. The spare princess, torn between her desire to be regal and bohemian, was a more suitable case for satire than her dutiful older sister. Actually there is a great deal of irreverence here but almost none of it is directed towards the Queen herself. I expect Brown recognised there was no point being iconoclastic about someone nobody really knew. Queen Elizabeth II suppressed her personality and opinions so completely in carrying out her public role that she effectively turned herself into a cipher.
As with his biographies of Princess Margaret and the Beatles, Brown did almost no primary research. He does, though, seem to have read every book ever written about the Queen and the royal family, an experience he describes as ‘like wading through candy floss, you emerge pink and queasy, but also undernourished’. Rather him than me, but from a mountain of trivia he constructs a panoramic and deceptively complex portrait of the Queen and her subjects. He even managed to convince me that her passion for horse racing and those yapping, disobedient corgis, tells you something about her need for unpredictability and disruption in an overly ordered life.
Staying with the subject of trivia which is perhaps not so trivial, there is also the matter of the Queen’s voice and how it changed over the decades. In her early Christmas broadcasts her pronunciation of ‘had’ rhymed with ‘bed’ and ‘happy’ with ‘preppy’. By the 1980s they rhymed with ‘bad’ and ‘nappy’. This change was also true of practically everyone in British public life. At one time all famous Britons wanted to sound posh, but nowadays none of them do, least of all the posh. I recently watched some repeats of the BBC panel game Call My Bluff from the 1970s and everyone on it, including those of humble origins like Frank Muir, sounded more regal than the present King.
The idea of the Queen as a mirror in which others saw only themselves and their own prejudices provides Brown with a lot of mileage and funny stories. He also notes that, in marked contrast to her children and grandchildren, she ‘never confused being famous with being interesting’. As the rest of the royal family degenerated into a sort of soap opera and became an extension of the celebrity culture, the Queen remained majestically, yet somehow modestly, aloof and unknowable. She simply got on with her job. In a brilliantly empathetic sentence Brown says: ‘she survived the peculiar ordeal of her life by shielding herself in duty’. As a way of dealing with a possibly unwanted destiny it certainly beats misery memoirs and baring your royal soul to Oprah.
The Queen lived a long life and this is a very long book. There were times when I felt myself overdosing on royalty and had to come up for air. Perhaps it’s best dipped into. I admit that, as a lifelong sceptic about constitutional monarchy and the British royal family, I’m not an obvious reader for a 662 page biography of the Queen (I read it primarily because it’s by Craig Brown, one of the funniest writers currently drawing breath). Still, this is a clever, good-humoured and entertaining book. It’s blessedly free of the dogmatic cliches and fixed positions (pro or anti) which usually infest a discussion of monarchy. Brown is rather like an amiable visitor from another planet investigating this curious phenomenon with genuine open-minded curiosity. The Queen herself remains ultimately elusive, but, in its seemingly offhand way, this is full of insights about the institution of monarchy and British society during her reign.
As with his biographies of Princess Margaret and the Beatles, Brown did almost no primary research. He does, though, seem to have read every book ever written about the Queen and the royal family, an experience he describes as ‘like wading through candy floss, you emerge pink and queasy, but also undernourished’. Rather him than me, but from a mountain of trivia he constructs a panoramic and deceptively complex portrait of the Queen and her subjects. He even managed to convince me that her passion for horse racing and those yapping, disobedient corgis, tells you something about her need for unpredictability and disruption in an overly ordered life.
Staying with the subject of trivia which is perhaps not so trivial, there is also the matter of the Queen’s voice and how it changed over the decades. In her early Christmas broadcasts her pronunciation of ‘had’ rhymed with ‘bed’ and ‘happy’ with ‘preppy’. By the 1980s they rhymed with ‘bad’ and ‘nappy’. This change was also true of practically everyone in British public life. At one time all famous Britons wanted to sound posh, but nowadays none of them do, least of all the posh. I recently watched some repeats of the BBC panel game Call My Bluff from the 1970s and everyone on it, including those of humble origins like Frank Muir, sounded more regal than the present King.
The idea of the Queen as a mirror in which others saw only themselves and their own prejudices provides Brown with a lot of mileage and funny stories. He also notes that, in marked contrast to her children and grandchildren, she ‘never confused being famous with being interesting’. As the rest of the royal family degenerated into a sort of soap opera and became an extension of the celebrity culture, the Queen remained majestically, yet somehow modestly, aloof and unknowable. She simply got on with her job. In a brilliantly empathetic sentence Brown says: ‘she survived the peculiar ordeal of her life by shielding herself in duty’. As a way of dealing with a possibly unwanted destiny it certainly beats misery memoirs and baring your royal soul to Oprah.
The Queen lived a long life and this is a very long book. There were times when I felt myself overdosing on royalty and had to come up for air. Perhaps it’s best dipped into. I admit that, as a lifelong sceptic about constitutional monarchy and the British royal family, I’m not an obvious reader for a 662 page biography of the Queen (I read it primarily because it’s by Craig Brown, one of the funniest writers currently drawing breath). Still, this is a clever, good-humoured and entertaining book. It’s blessedly free of the dogmatic cliches and fixed positions (pro or anti) which usually infest a discussion of monarchy. Brown is rather like an amiable visitor from another planet investigating this curious phenomenon with genuine open-minded curiosity. The Queen herself remains ultimately elusive, but, in its seemingly offhand way, this is full of insights about the institution of monarchy and British society during her reign.
September 9, 2024
3.5 Stars
I very much enjoyed this author's similarly styled book about The Beatles, so was intrigued to ingest this one about Queen Elizabeth II. This, too, was a delight. The book clocks in at almost 700 pages, crammed with stories about this royal icon's Coronation, The Royal Yacht Britannia, conversations with dignitaries and famous people on meet and greets, her death in 2022 and the worldwide reaction to it...and so much more. Each chapter addresses a topic, so it's helpful to finish the chapter because if you leave it aside and come back to it there's a disorienting effect. It's also possible with this type of book to skim through chapters if you're not particularly interested in that spectrum of royal life discussed. For instance, I've read quite a lot of books on this Queen that covered her Coronation, and there's so much to "talk" about that day. The author really goes into the weeds about random people touched by this event from average Brits having Coronation celebratory lunches in the streets to a young Paul McCartney who won a writing contest with his essay about the new Queen. I was particularly interested in how Queen Elizabeth II conducted her conversations with countless people on meet lines, often using the parting comment "Very interesting!" as a trope to move on to the next person. This voluminous book is chock full of quirky facts to satisfy both the avid and casual royal readers.
Thank you to the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
I very much enjoyed this author's similarly styled book about The Beatles, so was intrigued to ingest this one about Queen Elizabeth II. This, too, was a delight. The book clocks in at almost 700 pages, crammed with stories about this royal icon's Coronation, The Royal Yacht Britannia, conversations with dignitaries and famous people on meet and greets, her death in 2022 and the worldwide reaction to it...and so much more. Each chapter addresses a topic, so it's helpful to finish the chapter because if you leave it aside and come back to it there's a disorienting effect. It's also possible with this type of book to skim through chapters if you're not particularly interested in that spectrum of royal life discussed. For instance, I've read quite a lot of books on this Queen that covered her Coronation, and there's so much to "talk" about that day. The author really goes into the weeds about random people touched by this event from average Brits having Coronation celebratory lunches in the streets to a young Paul McCartney who won a writing contest with his essay about the new Queen. I was particularly interested in how Queen Elizabeth II conducted her conversations with countless people on meet lines, often using the parting comment "Very interesting!" as a trope to move on to the next person. This voluminous book is chock full of quirky facts to satisfy both the avid and casual royal readers.
Thank you to the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
October 1, 2024
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
I'm so glad I took a chance on this one and requested the ARC. It was so much fun! It avoided literally everything that usually makes me avoid reading biographies: the tedious linear structure, the grandiloquence and navel-gazing that comes with writing about a much-lauded (or controversial) figure (and the author trying to "earn it"), and to be honest, the dull bits. Q: A Voyage Around the Queen is not a standard biography, so despite my having called it one, make sure your expectations are set properly. We don't get any primary sources from the Queen herself, we don't get much behind the scenes input of decisions of state or politics of any kind. What we DO get is a series of primary sources from everyone but Lilibet herself, and not necessarily the people you would expect.
This isn't so much a book about Queen Elizabeth II, but a book about how she affected the world around her throughout the 70+ years of her rule (and some before that as well). Here are two examples of what you will get with this book: 1) There is an entire chapter of people's dreams about the Queen, which Brown seems to have sourced from a multitude of places (my favorite was the writer Kingsley Amis's); and 2) There is a chapter devoted to the thwarted ambitions of a woman who desperately wanted to be one of the Queen's Ladies in Waiting (which I did not know was still a thing!!). We see her diaries as a young girl, and that she's still obsessing about it as an elderly woman. The chapter on the Coronation was a real treat, from the noble who attended out of spite while holding a 103+ degree fever, to a ten-year old Paul McCartney, who won an essay contest about the Queen's impending reign.
The best thing about this format is that he gets so many opinions and stories from so many different places that the reader can form their own picture and opinions of the Queen. I do not give a fig about the monarchy or the royal family, but this was a really good read. Will definitely be checking out more books from this author.
And I didn't even get around to talking about the extensive corgi lineages!
I'm so glad I took a chance on this one and requested the ARC. It was so much fun! It avoided literally everything that usually makes me avoid reading biographies: the tedious linear structure, the grandiloquence and navel-gazing that comes with writing about a much-lauded (or controversial) figure (and the author trying to "earn it"), and to be honest, the dull bits. Q: A Voyage Around the Queen is not a standard biography, so despite my having called it one, make sure your expectations are set properly. We don't get any primary sources from the Queen herself, we don't get much behind the scenes input of decisions of state or politics of any kind. What we DO get is a series of primary sources from everyone but Lilibet herself, and not necessarily the people you would expect.
This isn't so much a book about Queen Elizabeth II, but a book about how she affected the world around her throughout the 70+ years of her rule (and some before that as well). Here are two examples of what you will get with this book: 1) There is an entire chapter of people's dreams about the Queen, which Brown seems to have sourced from a multitude of places (my favorite was the writer Kingsley Amis's); and 2) There is a chapter devoted to the thwarted ambitions of a woman who desperately wanted to be one of the Queen's Ladies in Waiting (which I did not know was still a thing!!). We see her diaries as a young girl, and that she's still obsessing about it as an elderly woman. The chapter on the Coronation was a real treat, from the noble who attended out of spite while holding a 103+ degree fever, to a ten-year old Paul McCartney, who won an essay contest about the Queen's impending reign.
The best thing about this format is that he gets so many opinions and stories from so many different places that the reader can form their own picture and opinions of the Queen. I do not give a fig about the monarchy or the royal family, but this was a really good read. Will definitely be checking out more books from this author.
And I didn't even get around to talking about the extensive corgi lineages!
July 5, 2024
ARC for review. To be published October 1, 2024.
If you love all things royal, this is for you. Fun stories, snippets, anecdotes, quotes, dreams (lots of dreams) about the one and only Queen Elizabeth….if you were waiting for the book on the Queen where Rob Halford from Judas Priest weighs in, well, here’s your book (he was impressed, naturally)!
This book has it all, from long sections on the coronation and her death and funeral to lots of little impressions about the Royal Effect on people famous, infamous and humble (and it really is a thing.). When you keep in mind that “no one in human history lived a more chronicled life’ than the Queen;” we knew what she was doing from the moment she was born to the time of her death. She was photographed every week of her life, generally by hundreds or thousands of people. For NINETY-SIX YEARS. A singular life, for sure, regardless of how you feel about the monarchy, the royal family, etc.
I liked this book. I might have loved it, but it was SIX HUNDRED PAGES long. I read them all, but that was too, too many for most people, and probably not near enough for some. I guess it just depends on whom Brown was aiming toward here. But, a worthy effort, definitely more fun than another boring biography.
Oh, and the corgis? They are awful, and do not give a damn. Just as I suspected.
If you love all things royal, this is for you. Fun stories, snippets, anecdotes, quotes, dreams (lots of dreams) about the one and only Queen Elizabeth….if you were waiting for the book on the Queen where Rob Halford from Judas Priest weighs in, well, here’s your book (he was impressed, naturally)!
This book has it all, from long sections on the coronation and her death and funeral to lots of little impressions about the Royal Effect on people famous, infamous and humble (and it really is a thing.). When you keep in mind that “no one in human history lived a more chronicled life’ than the Queen;” we knew what she was doing from the moment she was born to the time of her death. She was photographed every week of her life, generally by hundreds or thousands of people. For NINETY-SIX YEARS. A singular life, for sure, regardless of how you feel about the monarchy, the royal family, etc.
I liked this book. I might have loved it, but it was SIX HUNDRED PAGES long. I read them all, but that was too, too many for most people, and probably not near enough for some. I guess it just depends on whom Brown was aiming toward here. But, a worthy effort, definitely more fun than another boring biography.
Oh, and the corgis? They are awful, and do not give a damn. Just as I suspected.
March 9, 2025
I’ve never liked the British royal family and have long believed that the world would be better off without it.
Nobody should be allowed to pretend that they are somehow better than anyone else just because their ancestors stole land from peasants.
However I was fascinated by the late queen Elizabeth who performed her archaic role for so many decades.
She was the most photographed woman in history, a 20th Century icon who also symbolised an older age.
Craig Brown’s portrait of her “A Voyage Around the Queen” is the definitive biography. Brown is not a lick-spittle “royal correspondent” he is known for his humorous writing in Private Eye. He also seems to have researched his subject exhaustively and the result is extremely funny, and also profound.
In its pages he charts the bloodlines of her corgis, and chronicles their savagery and also tells of the dreams the famous have had of the queen and the impact she had on the famous and the powerful.
It is a big read, but great fun.
Nobody should be allowed to pretend that they are somehow better than anyone else just because their ancestors stole land from peasants.
However I was fascinated by the late queen Elizabeth who performed her archaic role for so many decades.
She was the most photographed woman in history, a 20th Century icon who also symbolised an older age.
Craig Brown’s portrait of her “A Voyage Around the Queen” is the definitive biography. Brown is not a lick-spittle “royal correspondent” he is known for his humorous writing in Private Eye. He also seems to have researched his subject exhaustively and the result is extremely funny, and also profound.
In its pages he charts the bloodlines of her corgis, and chronicles their savagery and also tells of the dreams the famous have had of the queen and the impact she had on the famous and the powerful.
It is a big read, but great fun.
October 15, 2024
Did we need another biography of the Queen? Probably not, but I was interested in this because it was billed as a fresh perspective on the subject. Which is a little hard to understand given that the book is essentially a compilation of things previously written about the queen.
If you don’t know much about Queen Elizabeth, this is a fine place to start. It’s thorough, moves well, and includes both the important history and some fun anecdotal content. If you’re already relatively informed on the subject, there probably isn’t much point to reading this.
I liked Brown’s style for the most part as well as his curation of subject matter, though he does have a tendency to insert himself into the narrative, which doesn’t add anything to the material and feels vaguely obnoxious.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
If you don’t know much about Queen Elizabeth, this is a fine place to start. It’s thorough, moves well, and includes both the important history and some fun anecdotal content. If you’re already relatively informed on the subject, there probably isn’t much point to reading this.
I liked Brown’s style for the most part as well as his curation of subject matter, though he does have a tendency to insert himself into the narrative, which doesn’t add anything to the material and feels vaguely obnoxious.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
July 28, 2024
Fascinating, funny and irreverent biography of the Queen, similar in tone and approach to Brown’s previous books on her sister Princess Margaret and The Beatles. It’s very long, but let’s face it, so was her life, yet it whips along at a great pace.
If you only read one book about the Queen, and judging by the list of sources at the end, Craig Brown has read all of them, then this is probably the one for you.
If you only read one book about the Queen, and judging by the list of sources at the end, Craig Brown has read all of them, then this is probably the one for you.
March 12, 2025
I haven't read other books by this author, which seems to make me an outlier of readers here. I enjoyed the way we circled the Queen in looking at her life, taking notes from the people around her and news and culture tidbits related to the Queen to show how her life was observed. It seems like maybe the only way to write a big book about her, as she was little more than her position as far as anyone can tell. She liked her dogs and horses and had no personality beyond that. She found conversation difficult and never offered solid opinions on anything. It is both hard to believe and entirely understandable that she became so void as a person so that the nation could see themselves reflected there instead.
November 16, 2024
This was slow but steady book for me. A long and interesting book about Queen Elizabeth II that provided joy and comfort in a difficult month for reading and work. I loved every minute of reading this book. It is going to be in my top ten of the year. I love books about the royal family and this is among the best. It looks at the late queen from many different perspectives and not in the typical way of most biographies. The author uses a kaleidoscopic approach to the most famous—and most guarded— woman on earth, examining the Queen through a succession of interlocking prisms. It explores her childhood, and her relatives including her grandparents and parents, cousins and children with little known stories about them. It looks at the Queen from many different places. For example, it looks at her from the perspective of her corgis - how she became a Corgi fan—and from the changing exhibits at Madame Tussaud’s and what that says about the Queen and the Royal family. It explores issues related to her marriage to Prince Philip, her relationship to Commonwealth countries as they increasingly lean Republican, her relationships with her homes and family, and her communications with everyone from her children to her prime ministers. Craig Brown treats us to an inside view of her family and courtiers’ relationship to the Queen with anecdotes involving her family members, courtiers, and friends. This books is not a typical biography written in chronological order but its kaleidoscopic approach to examining the Queen through highlighting unique events, people, and elements of her life provide insights into the Queen’s life and provide a portrait unique and different and oh so much better than the typical biography. 5 stars for sure!!
October 8, 2024
An unconventional biography of Queen Elizabeth II told through more than 100 examples of her impact on society and culture over the course of her long life and reign. Some of the sources will be familiar to readers who have read a lot of books about the royal family but there are also some new sources included unpublished papers by past poet laureates. Brown's approach to writing about the Queen's historical and sociological significance reminded me of the 1980s book "Talking About the Royal Family" as Brown provides vivid examples about how the Queen became part of the British - and global - imagination including how the public believes that they see their own lives and concerns reflected in the royal family. There are a lot of fun stories including tales of awkward guests at garden parties who can't stop talking about their dogs and comedians having trouble getting laughs when there's royalty in the audience but there are also moving stories about how meeting the Queen or even learning about the Queen had a transformative impact on so many people. An enjoyable and insightful read.
January 29, 2025
A weird book for me to pick up, especially after Say Nothing, but I really enjoyed this. An old copy of the Literary Review was in my parents' AirBnB while they were staying in Sydney, and so I ended up reading about this book, and its intriguing usage of secondary sources, to create, not a staid portrait of reliably dull monarch, but a panorama of British mania.
I imagine the Brits will never get rid of the monarchy, because then they would have no object for their veneration and their disdain. I enjoyed Brown's style so much I'm likely to check out the Beatles and Princess Margaret books despite having little interest in either parties. It's not about the people themselves, but how they are received. Top notch biography, and recommended for anyone who's ever watched an episode of the Crown and wondered, "what's wrong with those people?"
I imagine the Brits will never get rid of the monarchy, because then they would have no object for their veneration and their disdain. I enjoyed Brown's style so much I'm likely to check out the Beatles and Princess Margaret books despite having little interest in either parties. It's not about the people themselves, but how they are received. Top notch biography, and recommended for anyone who's ever watched an episode of the Crown and wondered, "what's wrong with those people?"
December 27, 2025
“No one in human history lived a more chronicled life than the Queen. We can chart her movements, on an almost daily basis, from the moment she was born to the moment she died. There was barely a week in her ninety-six years when she was not photographed, often by hundreds or even thousands of people.”
I’ve come to realise that in the same way that many over-eager pet owners assign all kinds of profound skills and special powers onto their pets, many people suffer from the same affliction when it comes to the queen – in short it seems the less she says and does the more qualities and talents she seem to acquire, she’s like a cipher for the masses, and whatever mysterious, unquantifiable traits they place on her seems to say more about them than the queen.
“The Queen had an instinct for ritual; without it, the monarchy would lose its mystery, its magic, its power.”
This wasn’t quite what I was expecting – Many people claim that Brown is funny – with the rent-a-quotes gushing at the back “an enthralling reverie on memory!” and “exquisitely funny and fascinating!” well he certainly did a good job of hiding it in here, at best I found some rare moments of mild amusement, and there were definitely some really interesting moments, but nothing that I’d class as funny as such over nearly 650 pages. But then again maybe you had to have gone to one of those posh English schools, like the rent-a-quotes on the blurb, the author and indeed his subject matter did, to get in on the hilarity?...
Brown tells us that Prince Philip’s sisters “made a habit of marrying Nazis,” Philip was largely brought up by his mother’s brother as his mother suffered from severe mental illness (and he once went five years without seeing her as a child.) We also learn that from around the age of 11 until he was married he had no fixed abode.
“If a cricketer suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat-which he could do very easily-are you going to ban cricket bats?”
Was old Philip’s reaction to being quizzed on gun control at the end of 1996.
The age old problem with damaged people like the royals is that like far too many of the elite, they have been subjected to truly horrendous upbringing, riddled with all sorts of trauma, abuse and neglect laden with toxic, selfish destructive parents – but unfortunately when that distasteful and destructive end product gains power and then everyone else has to endure the results of it – it’s quite a different matter.
“You can’t touch me. I’m royal.” Is apparently what the former Duke of York Andrew “Pizza Express” Windsor called out to Meatloaf after trying to push him into the water, during the filming of “It’s A Royal Knockout” and he responded with – “I don’t give a shit who you are, you’re goin’ in the moat.”
The pages and pages dedicated to largely minor celeb’s and Boris “Honey! Honey! Honey!” Johnston’s dreams of the queen, were incredibly dull, but they were riveting compared to the absolute rubbish of being subjected to a whole chapter about her corgis. Sweet Baby Jesus!
I thought the story of the Queen’s most famous lookalike – Jeannette Charles (seen in many adverts, TV shows and movies etc) was interesting and even more impressive and strange as not only were they born within a year of each other, but they both lived to the ripe old age of 96. Spooky.
So in the end the queen like the royals is a depressing, seemingly endless saga, a childish, pathetic soap opera built on - a dark and twisted history, involving centuries of murder, avarice, lies, theft, oppression, tyranny, fascism, racism, ignorance, incest and lazy, entitled, parasitic privilege. Whilst millions of Britons were enduring the misery and hardship of enforced rationing, this smug, pompous group of parasites were indulging in lives of pampered, childish excess, greed and petulance. Never tiring of their own narcissism, never stop believing that they are above everyone and everything else, including the law they remain one of the saddest and greatest tricks played on the gullible.
September 22, 2025
Craig Brown takes the kaleidoscopic approach to biography that he employed to such good effect in Ma’am Darling and One Two Three Four, his books about Princess Margaret and The Beatles, to probably the most famous woman in the world, the late Queen Elizabeth II. That she was also probably the most written about woman in the whole of the Twentieth century is no obstacle to the author’s ability to fill over 650 pages with engaging, surprising and funny material. Brown, one of the most consistently funny writers around has the good sense to work from the premise that there’s pretty much nothing left to say about the life of Elizabeth R that hasn’t already been said; she was, in many respects a cipher for the state as a whole and spent seventy years keeping her opinions to herself. Where there is gold to be mined is in the responses of others to her and her family, not least in the dream lives of her subjects (numerous studies have revealed that she regularly features in the dreams of surprising numbers of people). A Voyage Around the Queen is an immensely enjoyable, multifaceted approach to a life lived in full public view, long but always enjoyable and frequently surprising. It’s probably best read in a piecemeal, a few pages at a time, fashion, rather than from cover to cover in one go.
September 19, 2024
Another astonishing biography by Craig Brown. He manages to balance insight, humour and emotion in the short chapters. Each chapter offers a snapshot of something that happened around/to/because of the Queen. I found myself reading it slowly so i could take time to enjoy the stories. Often stopping to find out more on a subject or following a rabbit hole of research. I am sure i will revisit this book as I have with his equally wonderful previous books on The Beatles and Princess Margaret.
November 9, 2024
Not bad at all, but after Princess Margaret & The Beatles we all get the author’s trick of circling around his subjects. Funny, but more of the same.
April 1, 2025
Just before starting this review I discovered that I had read Craig Brown's 'Hell, Goodbye, Hello' in 2015 and retained absolutely nothing of it and this gave me pause to consider exactly what real strengths this book about the late Queen Elizabeth II has. It is immensely long, 600 pages, and it might be wondered if anyone needs to read that many pages on her late majesty? I can't help thinking that Bismark's remark about Napoleon III 'A Sphinx without a secret' says it all though if you want it in a more literary form you should read Oscar Wilde's story 'The Sphinx Without a Secret'. Brown recognises this:
"When people look at her, they’re really looking in the mirror or at the bottom of a well"
That Brown's book is not so much an exploration of the real life of Elizabeth II as an examination of the realities, interpretations, feelings, myths and meanings that everyone else has foisted upon her. But what of her? In 70 years on the throne there is only one instance, known, of Queen Elizabeth intervening to change government policy and that was to prevent the closure of the army school of bagpipe music. Although Brown's book is fascinating there is a curious nullity at its centre, although that nullity is probably what made Elizabeth II successful. The chances of her grandson or great grandson being able to replicate what Elizabeth did is hard to imagine.
Brown's book is brilliant but much less satisfying than his book on Princess Margaret because Margaret was the opposite of her sister the Queen. 'Bad' people always make for interesting reading. I just wonder as the years go by and there are more people for whom Elizabeth was not a life long constant will it become ever harder to imagine why so many biographies were written about this woman. A huge mountain of speculation based on utter paucity of, not fact, but events. Seventy years of cutting ribbons, meeting people she didn't know, and expressing no opinions, what was the point of it all?
"When people look at her, they’re really looking in the mirror or at the bottom of a well"
That Brown's book is not so much an exploration of the real life of Elizabeth II as an examination of the realities, interpretations, feelings, myths and meanings that everyone else has foisted upon her. But what of her? In 70 years on the throne there is only one instance, known, of Queen Elizabeth intervening to change government policy and that was to prevent the closure of the army school of bagpipe music. Although Brown's book is fascinating there is a curious nullity at its centre, although that nullity is probably what made Elizabeth II successful. The chances of her grandson or great grandson being able to replicate what Elizabeth did is hard to imagine.
Brown's book is brilliant but much less satisfying than his book on Princess Margaret because Margaret was the opposite of her sister the Queen. 'Bad' people always make for interesting reading. I just wonder as the years go by and there are more people for whom Elizabeth was not a life long constant will it become ever harder to imagine why so many biographies were written about this woman. A huge mountain of speculation based on utter paucity of, not fact, but events. Seventy years of cutting ribbons, meeting people she didn't know, and expressing no opinions, what was the point of it all?
Read
January 4, 2026What a wonderful concept for a book, and Craig Brown is probably the only writer who could address this. As the title implies, its not a biography of the Queen. Instead it's a wonderful examination of what the world's most documented and represented woman tells us about ourselves. As Brown elegantly puts it, "less of a picture, more of a mirror". Given that we can know where she was and what she was doing on any day of her life (the first biography of her was written when she was 4), but that when meeting her, her overawed subjects often have no recollection of what exactly was said (and usually it was the the most banal possible conversation), ER II was the ultimate Rorschach inkblot. I loved that the author had the same childish mix-up that we did, of identifying one's mother with the queen, showing that really quite bizarre and unique relationship people had with a figurehead who was utterly bland in public and pretty much unknowable in private. Brown documents the shift away from standing to hear the national anthem, with a lovely description of hysterically screaming Beatles fans in 1963 falling immediately silent when the anthem is playing, only to restart the screams as the final note plays. Quotes from those who met her, letters and newspaper pieces are beautifully presented with a bit of warmth but enough straight-face acid to make hilarious:
"The danger of the queen mother's high-heeled shoes catching in the tramlines outside Sheffield Town Hall posed a problem for corporation engineers yesterday. But they soon hit on the solution. They diverted the city's trams for two hours and laid tarmac across the lines".
Brown is the master of bathos and of discovering the most bizarre connections. The research he has done really deserves an award: Brown finds the most unlikely snippets and bizarre moments, generating many LOLs in this reader (Cecil Beaton sketching the coronation, his top hat stuffed with extra Indian ink and sustaining sandwiches, a 10 year old Paul McCartney's prizewinning essay comparing with the bloody coronation of William of Normandy - young Paul confidently predicts "no rioting nor killing will take place"). The middle and later sections do more documentation of events, getting over the weird combination of significance and banality in most Royal encounters, and are a reminder of just how disaster prone the royals are, with of course the honorable exception of HRH.
From the inevitably excruciating 'wit and wisdom' of Prince Philip, through Freddie Mercury's naming of Queen, the frankly ferocious little corgis, people's dreams about the Queen (very weird!) to the queen's 'double' and the wedding present list (a veritable history of empire) this book is indeed a voyage of discovery about the quirkiness of being British. All fallen apart since her death of course but we needed Craig Brown to explain what she represented.
"The danger of the queen mother's high-heeled shoes catching in the tramlines outside Sheffield Town Hall posed a problem for corporation engineers yesterday. But they soon hit on the solution. They diverted the city's trams for two hours and laid tarmac across the lines".
Brown is the master of bathos and of discovering the most bizarre connections. The research he has done really deserves an award: Brown finds the most unlikely snippets and bizarre moments, generating many LOLs in this reader (Cecil Beaton sketching the coronation, his top hat stuffed with extra Indian ink and sustaining sandwiches, a 10 year old Paul McCartney's prizewinning essay comparing with the bloody coronation of William of Normandy - young Paul confidently predicts "no rioting nor killing will take place"). The middle and later sections do more documentation of events, getting over the weird combination of significance and banality in most Royal encounters, and are a reminder of just how disaster prone the royals are, with of course the honorable exception of HRH.
From the inevitably excruciating 'wit and wisdom' of Prince Philip, through Freddie Mercury's naming of Queen, the frankly ferocious little corgis, people's dreams about the Queen (very weird!) to the queen's 'double' and the wedding present list (a veritable history of empire) this book is indeed a voyage of discovery about the quirkiness of being British. All fallen apart since her death of course but we needed Craig Brown to explain what she represented.
October 12, 2024
Thank you to #Netgalley for a free copy of this audio book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
My Interest
I read the author’s previous book, Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret, which disappointed because I was expecting something more conventional and because so many of the anecdotes related in the book were not new to me. Nonetheless, I requested this book on Netgalley and got it.
I now that I understand that this book is the author’s “thing”–he rounds up published or broadcasted or filmed stories about a person/group and publishes them as a book, I can give a better review of this one.
The Book and My Thoughts
“A new biography [is this a bio??] of Queen Elizabeth is particularly interested in the ways in which the late monarch, a familiar presence in the daily lives of so many for so long, also appeared unbidden in her subjects’ imaginative lives.”
The New Yorker on X
The stories related here cover all of the late Queen’s 96 years. They come mostly from the diaries, interviews, articles, memoirs, of writers, poets, artistis, politicians and the like, but some come from the memoirs of the Queen’s governess, from the memoirs of her distant cousin, Queen Marie of Romania and all sorts of other sources. Some have more to do with the person relating the story than with Her Majesty. As with the Margaret book, I’d read, seen, or heard many of the tales already, but a reader who does not collect on the royals would find a lot that is entertaining.
One of the stories new to me does not paint the Queen or the royal establishment in anything like a good light, but I believe it 100%. The queen’s racehorse trainer had the use of a property Her Majesty privately owned including a house. When he was gravely injured in a [fox] hunting accident he came back to work in a wheelchair but did the job. When he later had a heart attack, he was effectively fired and told to vacate the property. Lord Carnarveron (“Porchy”) did the dirty work, but it turns out it was his Godson who got the property to start his own training establishment. Then the injured man and his wife were asked to say good things to the press to cover it up! I laughed when the man led the Ruler of Dubai to victory with a horse descended from one the Queen bred and later sold to the Dubai royal. That was sweet justice to Porchy. I totally agree with the author though that no matter that it was Porchy who delivered the words NOTHING about the Queen’s blooodstock was done without her approval. It was H.M. who weilded the hatchet.
The funniest was the spoof of the Queen’s diary. (I’m a huge fan of spoof diaries and for a few years wrote one for my… friends of Camilla).
[punctuation may be off–I took these down from the audio book]
“Monday, a hectic week. After church Mr. Lucien Freud, who is a painter arrived to paint my portrait….I asked if he has been painting long, he tells me he has. ‘How interesting,’ I said, ‘a lovely hobby.’ I might have asked him if he would be most awfully kind and paint over the crack on the bathroom ceiling, but I forgot….. Frued, not a name you hear all that often….
“Tuesday in the evening Edward and his wife arrived, We all shake hands. She has fair hair. ‘Hello, Mummy, we were just passing so thought we’d drop by and say ‘hello,’ …’You remember Sophie, of course?’ ‘Of course,’ I say making her feel at home. ‘Have you come far?’ She says she hasn’t come all that far they live quite near Windsor….
“Wednesday, I receive my Prime Minister. He informs me of his plans…[for] modernizing the railway system…. ‘Railways are still very popular,’ I tell him, ‘they are particularly useful if people want to get from A to B and for one reason or another they don’t have their driver.’ ‘You’ve hit the nail on the head,’ he says. After 50 years as their monarch I have a wealth of knowledge and experience to offer….”
But by far, my favorite chapter concerend Prince Philip:
“Prince Philip was in many ways a tweedy, saloon bar philosopher….There was an element of Basil Fawlty [t.v. show Fawlty Towers with John Cleese] in him as there was of Sybil in the Queen–one of them ruffling feathers as the other attempted to smooth them….his instinctive iconoclasm could send him into crackpot journey….” Pretty funny!
I’d read Timothy Knatchbull’s book, so this was not new to me, but I was touched anew by the story of him arriving at Balmoral after the murder of his Grandfather, Lord Mountbatten and of his twin brother, Nicholas, to have the Queen “mother” him even though his older sister was unnerved and just wanted Her Majesty to go to bed. He relates how the Queen checked on him during the visit and even played Mummy long enough to send him to rest one day–something he badly needed. That was very sweet.
Now that I’m used to the author’s “thing” I enjoyed this collection more.
My Verdict
3.5
Q: A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown
I listened to the very long audio version of this book.
My Interest
I read the author’s previous book, Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret, which disappointed because I was expecting something more conventional and because so many of the anecdotes related in the book were not new to me. Nonetheless, I requested this book on Netgalley and got it.
I now that I understand that this book is the author’s “thing”–he rounds up published or broadcasted or filmed stories about a person/group and publishes them as a book, I can give a better review of this one.
The Book and My Thoughts
“A new biography [is this a bio??] of Queen Elizabeth is particularly interested in the ways in which the late monarch, a familiar presence in the daily lives of so many for so long, also appeared unbidden in her subjects’ imaginative lives.”
The New Yorker on X
The stories related here cover all of the late Queen’s 96 years. They come mostly from the diaries, interviews, articles, memoirs, of writers, poets, artistis, politicians and the like, but some come from the memoirs of the Queen’s governess, from the memoirs of her distant cousin, Queen Marie of Romania and all sorts of other sources. Some have more to do with the person relating the story than with Her Majesty. As with the Margaret book, I’d read, seen, or heard many of the tales already, but a reader who does not collect on the royals would find a lot that is entertaining.
One of the stories new to me does not paint the Queen or the royal establishment in anything like a good light, but I believe it 100%. The queen’s racehorse trainer had the use of a property Her Majesty privately owned including a house. When he was gravely injured in a [fox] hunting accident he came back to work in a wheelchair but did the job. When he later had a heart attack, he was effectively fired and told to vacate the property. Lord Carnarveron (“Porchy”) did the dirty work, but it turns out it was his Godson who got the property to start his own training establishment. Then the injured man and his wife were asked to say good things to the press to cover it up! I laughed when the man led the Ruler of Dubai to victory with a horse descended from one the Queen bred and later sold to the Dubai royal. That was sweet justice to Porchy. I totally agree with the author though that no matter that it was Porchy who delivered the words NOTHING about the Queen’s blooodstock was done without her approval. It was H.M. who weilded the hatchet.
The funniest was the spoof of the Queen’s diary. (I’m a huge fan of spoof diaries and for a few years wrote one for my… friends of Camilla).
[punctuation may be off–I took these down from the audio book]
“Monday, a hectic week. After church Mr. Lucien Freud, who is a painter arrived to paint my portrait….I asked if he has been painting long, he tells me he has. ‘How interesting,’ I said, ‘a lovely hobby.’ I might have asked him if he would be most awfully kind and paint over the crack on the bathroom ceiling, but I forgot….. Frued, not a name you hear all that often….
“Tuesday in the evening Edward and his wife arrived, We all shake hands. She has fair hair. ‘Hello, Mummy, we were just passing so thought we’d drop by and say ‘hello,’ …’You remember Sophie, of course?’ ‘Of course,’ I say making her feel at home. ‘Have you come far?’ She says she hasn’t come all that far they live quite near Windsor….
“Wednesday, I receive my Prime Minister. He informs me of his plans…[for] modernizing the railway system…. ‘Railways are still very popular,’ I tell him, ‘they are particularly useful if people want to get from A to B and for one reason or another they don’t have their driver.’ ‘You’ve hit the nail on the head,’ he says. After 50 years as their monarch I have a wealth of knowledge and experience to offer….”
But by far, my favorite chapter concerend Prince Philip:
“Prince Philip was in many ways a tweedy, saloon bar philosopher….There was an element of Basil Fawlty [t.v. show Fawlty Towers with John Cleese] in him as there was of Sybil in the Queen–one of them ruffling feathers as the other attempted to smooth them….his instinctive iconoclasm could send him into crackpot journey….” Pretty funny!
I’d read Timothy Knatchbull’s book, so this was not new to me, but I was touched anew by the story of him arriving at Balmoral after the murder of his Grandfather, Lord Mountbatten and of his twin brother, Nicholas, to have the Queen “mother” him even though his older sister was unnerved and just wanted Her Majesty to go to bed. He relates how the Queen checked on him during the visit and even played Mummy long enough to send him to rest one day–something he badly needed. That was very sweet.
Now that I’m used to the author’s “thing” I enjoyed this collection more.
My Verdict
3.5
Q: A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown
I listened to the very long audio version of this book.
September 22, 2024
For Anglophiles only- a compendium of comments and commentary involving the late Queen Elizabeth and those in her orbit. The audiobook is organized by main topics and key events such as having her portrait painted and handing out OBEs and the like. It also includes what others said about meeting her from newspaper reports or their biographies. By the end it painted a clear picture of a woman who accepted her role as a leader and cared for her subjects in the abstract, with little appetite for getting to know people as individuals.
In his introduction, the author, Craig Brown, makes the striking observation that many of her subjects know more about the Queen than about members of their own family. And while we may not remember where we were on a specific Tuesday nine years ago (for example), he can relatively easily obtain this information about HRH.
Some Royal family lore is debatable, and I enjoyed when the author contrasted the stories presented by the newspapers, biographers, and Netflix’ The Crown. He even suggests that Harry may have gotten some of his information (repeated in his bio, Spare) from watching The Crown!
The book is easily digestible and entertaining, with many famous people in cameos.
My thanks to the author, publisher, producer, and #NetGalley for access to the audiobook for review purposes. Publication date is October 1st, 2024.
In his introduction, the author, Craig Brown, makes the striking observation that many of her subjects know more about the Queen than about members of their own family. And while we may not remember where we were on a specific Tuesday nine years ago (for example), he can relatively easily obtain this information about HRH.
Some Royal family lore is debatable, and I enjoyed when the author contrasted the stories presented by the newspapers, biographers, and Netflix’ The Crown. He even suggests that Harry may have gotten some of his information (repeated in his bio, Spare) from watching The Crown!
The book is easily digestible and entertaining, with many famous people in cameos.
My thanks to the author, publisher, producer, and #NetGalley for access to the audiobook for review purposes. Publication date is October 1st, 2024.
January 7, 2025
A long tour around the Queen, and people who met/wrote/saw or lived at the same time (so a lot of people, hence a hefty book). Funny, incisive, clever, entertaining.
December 31, 2024
Craig Brown books are always a scream.
No matter how many times I read about The Queen, I come away still not knowing much about her. She really was a perfect British Monarch.
No matter how many times I read about The Queen, I come away still not knowing much about her. She really was a perfect British Monarch.
February 7, 2025
This was a big old book all about the Queen! It was filled with so much information, facts, figures and pictures for her time as our monarch. It's not a biography though, there's so much more to it with chapters on what she did for people, how people felt about her, her staff, her family and her own words. There is also references to the Queen's death and subsequent lying in state and the funeral. There's so much stuff in here to read and enjoy, and I loved all the little stories that have been shared. It's not written in any chronological order, but it's still easy to read and follow with the chapters well ordered and written. This must have taken an massive amount of research, so well done to the author for this. I have seen the author has other books which I will definitely be looking at.
October 25, 2024
Craig Brown convinced me to read a 655-page book about Queen Elizabeth II. That is an accomplishment. I am a vehement anti-royalist. America is founded on a rejection of the idea that a King or Queen is entitled to rule as a birthright. The English royalty is particularly silly since they have a title with no power. I have frequently said that I would not cross the street to see the King of England.
Craig Brown wrote a hilarious book about Princess Margeret. He has topped himself with this book on the Queen. His technique is to read everything written by anybody who has met his subject and mine it for the good bits. He adds his own take and snarkiness and he lets the total effect of this pointillist approach paint a picture.
He makes the point, over and over again, that the Royal force field around Queen Elizabeth was so strong that even convinced sceptics succumbed to seeing her as someone different from the rest of us.
He has great fun looking at the Queen from every angle. Jeanette Charles had an amazing resemblance to the Queen. She made a living as a Queen Elizabeth imitator. She played the Queen on "Monty Python", 'Saturday Night Live", "Naked Gun" and many more. He has a chapter of people who are haunted by the Queen appearing in their dreams. He has a long chapter on the attempts to decommission the very expensive Royal Yacht, and the Queen's behind the scenes maneuvers to keep it. He has a chapter on the British Labour Party minster Tony Benn's campaign to issue British stamps with something other than a picture of the Queen. He was unsuccessful.
Brown has chapters on King Philip, on the shenanigans of Charles, Anne and Andrew, on the souvenirs produced for her coronation, on her relationship with her Prime Ministers. He bids for an item in an auction of Royal stuff. He is fascinated by the poets, authors and intellectuals who wrestle with the question of whether to accept honors from the Queen. Many of them accept the honors with the excuse that they did it to please their mother.
Bron has a great eye for a good story and mines a huge amount of material for this book.
In the end, I am still baffled by the point of the whole thing, but I had a better sense of how the royal family pulls off this massive con.
Craig Brown wrote a hilarious book about Princess Margeret. He has topped himself with this book on the Queen. His technique is to read everything written by anybody who has met his subject and mine it for the good bits. He adds his own take and snarkiness and he lets the total effect of this pointillist approach paint a picture.
He makes the point, over and over again, that the Royal force field around Queen Elizabeth was so strong that even convinced sceptics succumbed to seeing her as someone different from the rest of us.
He has great fun looking at the Queen from every angle. Jeanette Charles had an amazing resemblance to the Queen. She made a living as a Queen Elizabeth imitator. She played the Queen on "Monty Python", 'Saturday Night Live", "Naked Gun" and many more. He has a chapter of people who are haunted by the Queen appearing in their dreams. He has a long chapter on the attempts to decommission the very expensive Royal Yacht, and the Queen's behind the scenes maneuvers to keep it. He has a chapter on the British Labour Party minster Tony Benn's campaign to issue British stamps with something other than a picture of the Queen. He was unsuccessful.
Brown has chapters on King Philip, on the shenanigans of Charles, Anne and Andrew, on the souvenirs produced for her coronation, on her relationship with her Prime Ministers. He bids for an item in an auction of Royal stuff. He is fascinated by the poets, authors and intellectuals who wrestle with the question of whether to accept honors from the Queen. Many of them accept the honors with the excuse that they did it to please their mother.
Bron has a great eye for a good story and mines a huge amount of material for this book.
In the end, I am still baffled by the point of the whole thing, but I had a better sense of how the royal family pulls off this massive con.
September 15, 2024
Since the death of Queen Elizabeth, I’ve been wanting to read a bio of her. But I haven’t been able to steel myself for a hefty, pages and pages long, brick of a book, which they all seem to be. And I wasn’t attracted to the idea of a hagiography, nor to a scandalous tell-all. So when the opportunity to read this unconventional biography arose, it seemed the answer to my prayers. And, for the most part, it was. It ended up being a lengthier read than I’d expected. No surprise, I guess, since Elizabeth R had quite a long life. Instead of a straight year-by-year slog through her 96 years on the field, Brown chose to reveal the Queen’s life through various sideways lenses. It was fairly linear, which helped keep it organized; sometimes funny, sometimes poignant and always affectionate. I did find it to be just a bit too long. For one example, the section on the Royal Yacht, while interesting, was far longer than it needed to be. And, while the first chapter outlining dreams that various people have had about the Queen was fun and clever, the several more chapters about dreams were unnecessary. It drug a good thing out too long. And I didn’t care for the several chapters which were written as if by Elizabeth II herself. Those seemed disrespectful, especially in a book that, as I said before, otherwise treated her with such generosity and warmth. These minor quibbles aside, I really enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to anybody interested in the Royal Family.
November 3, 2025
Queen Elizabeth was a very private person for someone who lived so publicly. Brown bounces back and forth from personal reflections of friends, public reflections, and the media. I enjoyed some chapters more than others, but not much new information. His book about Margaret had a little more depth because she lived more out loud and in public.
What is clear is that Queen Elizabeth had a sense of humor, a sense of her role, but some glaring blind spots. Her life was documented from an early age: cover of Time Magazine at the age of 3, the first biography in print by age 4, and she held the throne for nearly 71 years. She was the oldest granddaughter of King George V (who died when she was 9 years old) and became queen at the ripe old age of 26--in a world dominated by men and very few women in any workforce.
Highlight chapters
A family life in statements (the tone of Andrew statements and Prince Harry's are startling--QEII clearly had a glaring blindspot spot for Andy)
Diana chapters (duh)
Margaret and Townsend "After all, he adds, the Russian monarchy was never so popular or treated to such adulation as in 1914. Yet when, a few years later, the Tsar and his family were cruelly shot down in a cellar, no one seemed to care much." Malcom Muggeridge
What is clear is that Queen Elizabeth had a sense of humor, a sense of her role, but some glaring blind spots. Her life was documented from an early age: cover of Time Magazine at the age of 3, the first biography in print by age 4, and she held the throne for nearly 71 years. She was the oldest granddaughter of King George V (who died when she was 9 years old) and became queen at the ripe old age of 26--in a world dominated by men and very few women in any workforce.
Highlight chapters
A family life in statements (the tone of Andrew statements and Prince Harry's are startling--QEII clearly had a glaring blindspot spot for Andy)
Diana chapters (duh)
Margaret and Townsend "After all, he adds, the Russian monarchy was never so popular or treated to such adulation as in 1914. Yet when, a few years later, the Tsar and his family were cruelly shot down in a cellar, no one seemed to care much." Malcom Muggeridge
January 20, 2025
I enjoyed this book more than I had anticipated. I could not have imagined being entertained while I read a two whole chapters on the phrases “My Husband and I” and “Very interesting” yet I did.
While the TV show “The Crown” offered a more royal feel, this book complements the show well with a personal touch of the time period. The author has certainly done a very extensive research of everything about The Queen and translated it into a soothing and calm casual read. I do not imagine getting this experience in any other biography due to the sheer information and spotlight on the person of interest. The Queen had a unique position of being a Monarch of one of the most important states starting from a time period of their fading importance moving towards a world equipped with capable technology and media abundance. No longer will the world pay this amount of attention to any Monarchy, and neither will anyone’s individual life will have such importance across such a long timeframe.
While the TV show “The Crown” offered a more royal feel, this book complements the show well with a personal touch of the time period. The author has certainly done a very extensive research of everything about The Queen and translated it into a soothing and calm casual read. I do not imagine getting this experience in any other biography due to the sheer information and spotlight on the person of interest. The Queen had a unique position of being a Monarch of one of the most important states starting from a time period of their fading importance moving towards a world equipped with capable technology and media abundance. No longer will the world pay this amount of attention to any Monarchy, and neither will anyone’s individual life will have such importance across such a long timeframe.
October 5, 2025
As this book is at pains to point out early on, Elizabeth II had one of the most closely documented lives ever. It’s possible to find out what she was doing pretty much every day of her 96-year long existence. Yet while this made her instantly recognisable it also makes her strangely unknowable.
What Craig Brown has produced here is therefore very clever because it’s not a conventional biography. Instead, as the title suggests, it offers a look at the queen from many different perspectives. It draws on sources including personal diaries and recollections, even dreams, from people in all walks of life.
It’s a bit of a doorstep at 600+ pages, however, it’s an easy book to dip in and out of. It’s also very funny in parts and downright silly in others – a school’s Guinea Pig Awareness Week being cancelled as a mark of respect on Her Majesty’s death.
If you’re a fan of conventional, dry biography this is one to avoid, if you want a fun read about an extraordinary life it’s one to seek out.
What Craig Brown has produced here is therefore very clever because it’s not a conventional biography. Instead, as the title suggests, it offers a look at the queen from many different perspectives. It draws on sources including personal diaries and recollections, even dreams, from people in all walks of life.
It’s a bit of a doorstep at 600+ pages, however, it’s an easy book to dip in and out of. It’s also very funny in parts and downright silly in others – a school’s Guinea Pig Awareness Week being cancelled as a mark of respect on Her Majesty’s death.
If you’re a fan of conventional, dry biography this is one to avoid, if you want a fun read about an extraordinary life it’s one to seek out.
January 1, 2025
As someone who greatly admired Queen Elizabeth II, I appreciated most of this book for its thoroughness and unique perspectives. A favorite chapter was the one that dealt with people's dreams of HM! (Yes of course I have also had a dream but we did not speak and she was across a room.) About 3/5 through, the book took on a slightly Republican viewpoint in some of the chapters, but not enough to upset or annoy me. In fact, the chapters dealing with HM's death had me shedding tears.
I am planning on photocopying the bibliography pages from this book because there are many listed which I have not heard of. ::tsk::: just when I had my To Be Read list down to under 300 -- now my "Royals" shelf will balloon yet again. Wheeee!
I am planning on photocopying the bibliography pages from this book because there are many listed which I have not heard of. ::tsk::: just when I had my To Be Read list down to under 300 -- now my "Royals" shelf will balloon yet again. Wheeee!
October 23, 2024
As a royal aficionado, it’s no surprise that I’d be interested in reading "Q: A Voyage Around the Queen." It’s by Craig Brown, whose book about Princess Margaret I’ve also read.
It’s accurately titled a voyage around the Queen because that’s truly what it is: not a biography, but various anecdotes and stories with some peripheral (and sometimes, very peripheral) connection to the Queen. The structure is not chronological overall, but each chapter has its own theme: corgis, horses, poet laureates, even Idi Amin.
Even with the book’s huge (700 page-ish) length, I was amazed at how few of the tidbits shared were new to me. I guess it’s testament to the amount of royal-themed reading I’ve done. Some bits I found interesting:
* Elizabeth was precocious and dutiful/detail-oriented, even as a child. She lined up her books on shelves and kept her clothes and belongings “immaculately tidy.” At age 5, she had some silver pieces in a miniature cottage, which she insisted to her nanny that she wrap in newspaper “to prevent it getting tarnished.”
* Brown describes Elizabeth’s life as “ninety-six years of concentrated self-control,” which seems apt.
* Among Philip and Elizabeth’s wedding gifts were 148 pairs of nylon stockings from Americans sensitive to Britain’s post-WWII shortage.
* Elizabeth and Philip would have preferred for Charles to be born at their country house, but “felt that a possible heir to the throne should not first see the light in a rented house.” Philip gave Charles a cricket bat for his first birthday, explaining “I want him to be a man’s man.” On being told that his grandfather was found dead by someone who had taken him tea, young Charles asked, “Who drank the tea?”
* “The Queen is a very private person; a loner. She longs to be in a room with nobody else. The dogs, the horses, her husband … She has few friends and if she had to choose between the dogs, the horses and friends, there is no doubt which she would choose.” (so says a daughter of the late Earl Mountbatten)
* “Perhaps, above all, the corgis were a distraction from the constraints of such a formal existence. ‘She has used the dogs not just to put others at their ease, but to ease her own discomfort. If there is an awkward lull, she will turn her attention to one of the dogs to fill the silence, or bend down to give them tidbits from her plate at the table.'”
* Although she talked with more people than anyone who has ever lived, the Queen was never a natural conversationalist. Her typical questions were “How long have you been waiting?” “Where have you come from?” and “What do you do?” “She is absolutely direct. less charming (than her mother) … she was more like her father, who found it hard to think of anything to say to anyone at any time.” “She has none of the warmth of her mother or son, but is not quite as rude as her husband.”
* “‘People revered the Crown, but they were not really interested in the Queen for the very simple reason that she is not really interesting.’ Nevertheless, ‘her uninterestingness is a positive asset.'”
* The author points out that the Queen must keep a pleasant expression on her face during engagements, often for hours on end, and how challenging this must be. Once, someone complained that she looked bored or upset. The Queen told an aide, “I’ve the kind of face that if I’m not smiling, I look cross. but I’m not cross. If you try to smile for two hours continuously it gives you a nervous tic.”
* At Diana’s funeral, the archbishop of Canterbury (head clergy of the Church of England) urged Diana’s brother to speak on the “‘Christian message of hope and life evermore in God.’ The (brother) listens politely, but leaves (the archbishop) with the impression that he has already worked out what he wants to say.'” If you watched, you’ll recall that his talk had no mention of Christianity in any form. I still remember the hopeless vibe of the service.
* More about Diana’s death: an author felt the mass mourning “testified to the struggle for self-expression of individuals who were spiritually and imaginatively deprived, who released their own suppressed sorrow in grieving for a woman they did not know.” I wish I’d phrased it that well, but I felt very similarly. Off on a bit of a tangent, I similarly feel that the near-worship of government and government programs seems to take the place of religion for many atheists of a liberal political persuasion.
The author seems fascinated by the phrase “camp” and the group “Sex Pistols,” as both terms occur over and over. This book is organized in such a way that it appears he read dozens of royal books, and just regurgitated his notes into a book. Compiling notes into a book is a great gig if you can get it, and he evidently found a publisher who offered it. There are many books about the Queen I’d recommend over “Q,” but as a royal fan I enjoyed parts of it (and skimmed the rest).
It’s accurately titled a voyage around the Queen because that’s truly what it is: not a biography, but various anecdotes and stories with some peripheral (and sometimes, very peripheral) connection to the Queen. The structure is not chronological overall, but each chapter has its own theme: corgis, horses, poet laureates, even Idi Amin.
Even with the book’s huge (700 page-ish) length, I was amazed at how few of the tidbits shared were new to me. I guess it’s testament to the amount of royal-themed reading I’ve done. Some bits I found interesting:
* Elizabeth was precocious and dutiful/detail-oriented, even as a child. She lined up her books on shelves and kept her clothes and belongings “immaculately tidy.” At age 5, she had some silver pieces in a miniature cottage, which she insisted to her nanny that she wrap in newspaper “to prevent it getting tarnished.”
* Brown describes Elizabeth’s life as “ninety-six years of concentrated self-control,” which seems apt.
* Among Philip and Elizabeth’s wedding gifts were 148 pairs of nylon stockings from Americans sensitive to Britain’s post-WWII shortage.
* Elizabeth and Philip would have preferred for Charles to be born at their country house, but “felt that a possible heir to the throne should not first see the light in a rented house.” Philip gave Charles a cricket bat for his first birthday, explaining “I want him to be a man’s man.” On being told that his grandfather was found dead by someone who had taken him tea, young Charles asked, “Who drank the tea?”
* “The Queen is a very private person; a loner. She longs to be in a room with nobody else. The dogs, the horses, her husband … She has few friends and if she had to choose between the dogs, the horses and friends, there is no doubt which she would choose.” (so says a daughter of the late Earl Mountbatten)
* “Perhaps, above all, the corgis were a distraction from the constraints of such a formal existence. ‘She has used the dogs not just to put others at their ease, but to ease her own discomfort. If there is an awkward lull, she will turn her attention to one of the dogs to fill the silence, or bend down to give them tidbits from her plate at the table.'”
* Although she talked with more people than anyone who has ever lived, the Queen was never a natural conversationalist. Her typical questions were “How long have you been waiting?” “Where have you come from?” and “What do you do?” “She is absolutely direct. less charming (than her mother) … she was more like her father, who found it hard to think of anything to say to anyone at any time.” “She has none of the warmth of her mother or son, but is not quite as rude as her husband.”
* “‘People revered the Crown, but they were not really interested in the Queen for the very simple reason that she is not really interesting.’ Nevertheless, ‘her uninterestingness is a positive asset.'”
* The author points out that the Queen must keep a pleasant expression on her face during engagements, often for hours on end, and how challenging this must be. Once, someone complained that she looked bored or upset. The Queen told an aide, “I’ve the kind of face that if I’m not smiling, I look cross. but I’m not cross. If you try to smile for two hours continuously it gives you a nervous tic.”
* At Diana’s funeral, the archbishop of Canterbury (head clergy of the Church of England) urged Diana’s brother to speak on the “‘Christian message of hope and life evermore in God.’ The (brother) listens politely, but leaves (the archbishop) with the impression that he has already worked out what he wants to say.'” If you watched, you’ll recall that his talk had no mention of Christianity in any form. I still remember the hopeless vibe of the service.
* More about Diana’s death: an author felt the mass mourning “testified to the struggle for self-expression of individuals who were spiritually and imaginatively deprived, who released their own suppressed sorrow in grieving for a woman they did not know.” I wish I’d phrased it that well, but I felt very similarly. Off on a bit of a tangent, I similarly feel that the near-worship of government and government programs seems to take the place of religion for many atheists of a liberal political persuasion.
The author seems fascinated by the phrase “camp” and the group “Sex Pistols,” as both terms occur over and over. This book is organized in such a way that it appears he read dozens of royal books, and just regurgitated his notes into a book. Compiling notes into a book is a great gig if you can get it, and he evidently found a publisher who offered it. There are many books about the Queen I’d recommend over “Q,” but as a royal fan I enjoyed parts of it (and skimmed the rest).
November 12, 2024
Part gossip fest, part popular history, part celebrity Who’s Who, this amazing biography of Queen Elizabeth II reveals all sorts of arcane details, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes downright camp … having been born before her coronation, I remember several of these tales, and several of the protagonists … great fun, and something of a tour down memory-lane … not that I ever met her, but a friend of mine did …
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