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Queen of England: The Story of Elizabeth I
A biography of Queen Elizabeth I, who, without husband or sons, successfully ruled England for 45 years and made it the most powerful kingdom on the globe.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1969
267 people want to read
About the author
Helene Hanff
28 books724 followersHelene Hanff (April 15, 1916–April 9, 1997) was an American writer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she is best known as the author of the book 84 Charing Cross Road, which became the basis for a play, teleplay, and film of the same name.
Her career, which saw her move from writing unproduced plays to helping create some of the earliest television dramas to becoming a kind of professional New Yorker, goes far beyond the charm of that one book. She called her 1961 memoir Underfoot in Show Business, and it chronicled the struggle of an ambitious young playwright to make it in the world of New York theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. She worked in publicists' offices and spent summers on the "straw hat" circuit along the East Coast of the United States, writing plays that were admired by some of Broadway's leading producers but which somehow never saw the light of day.
She wrote and edited scripts for a variety of early television dramas produced out of New York, all the while continuing to try and move from being what she called "one of the 999 out of 1,000 who don't become Noel Coward." When the bulk of television production moved to California, her work slowly dried up, and she turned to writing for magazines and, eventually, to the books that made her reputation.
First published in 1970, the epistolary work 84 Charing Cross Road chronicles her 20 years of correspondence with Frank Doel, the chief buyer for Marks & Co., a London bookshop, on which she depended for the obscure classics and British literature titles around which her passion for self-education revolved. She became intimately involved in the lives of the shop's staff, sending them food parcels during England's post-war shortages and sharing with them details of her life in Manhattan.
Due to financial difficulties and an aversion to travel, she put off visiting her English friends until too late; Doel died in December 1968 from peritonitis from a burst appendix, and the bookshop eventually closed. Hanff did finally visit Charing Cross Road and the empty but still standing shop in the summer of 1971, a trip recorded in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street.
In the 1987 film of 84 Charing Cross Road, Hanff was played by Anne Bancroft, while Anthony Hopkins took the part of Frank Doel. Anne Jackson had earlier played Hanff in a 1975 adaptation of the book for British television. Ellen Burstyn recreated the role on Broadway in 1982 at the Nederlander Theater in New York City.
She later put her obsession with British scholar Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch to use in a book called Q's Legacy. Other books include Apple of My Eye, an idiosyncratic guide to New York City, and A Letter from New York (1992), which reprinted talks she gave on the BBC's Woman's Hour between 1978 and 1985.
Hanff was never shy about her fondness for cigarettes and martinis, but nevertheless lived to be 80, dying of diabetes in 1997 in New York City. The apartment building where she lived at 305 E. 72nd Street has been named "Charing Cross House" in her honor. A bronze plaque next to the front door commemorates her residence and authorship of the book.
Her career, which saw her move from writing unproduced plays to helping create some of the earliest television dramas to becoming a kind of professional New Yorker, goes far beyond the charm of that one book. She called her 1961 memoir Underfoot in Show Business, and it chronicled the struggle of an ambitious young playwright to make it in the world of New York theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. She worked in publicists' offices and spent summers on the "straw hat" circuit along the East Coast of the United States, writing plays that were admired by some of Broadway's leading producers but which somehow never saw the light of day.
She wrote and edited scripts for a variety of early television dramas produced out of New York, all the while continuing to try and move from being what she called "one of the 999 out of 1,000 who don't become Noel Coward." When the bulk of television production moved to California, her work slowly dried up, and she turned to writing for magazines and, eventually, to the books that made her reputation.
First published in 1970, the epistolary work 84 Charing Cross Road chronicles her 20 years of correspondence with Frank Doel, the chief buyer for Marks & Co., a London bookshop, on which she depended for the obscure classics and British literature titles around which her passion for self-education revolved. She became intimately involved in the lives of the shop's staff, sending them food parcels during England's post-war shortages and sharing with them details of her life in Manhattan.
Due to financial difficulties and an aversion to travel, she put off visiting her English friends until too late; Doel died in December 1968 from peritonitis from a burst appendix, and the bookshop eventually closed. Hanff did finally visit Charing Cross Road and the empty but still standing shop in the summer of 1971, a trip recorded in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street.
In the 1987 film of 84 Charing Cross Road, Hanff was played by Anne Bancroft, while Anthony Hopkins took the part of Frank Doel. Anne Jackson had earlier played Hanff in a 1975 adaptation of the book for British television. Ellen Burstyn recreated the role on Broadway in 1982 at the Nederlander Theater in New York City.
She later put her obsession with British scholar Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch to use in a book called Q's Legacy. Other books include Apple of My Eye, an idiosyncratic guide to New York City, and A Letter from New York (1992), which reprinted talks she gave on the BBC's Woman's Hour between 1978 and 1985.
Hanff was never shy about her fondness for cigarettes and martinis, but nevertheless lived to be 80, dying of diabetes in 1997 in New York City. The apartment building where she lived at 305 E. 72nd Street has been named "Charing Cross House" in her honor. A bronze plaque next to the front door commemorates her residence and authorship of the book.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 5, 2015
This book is an amazing story about one of England's best rulers, Queen Elizabeth. The story tells us how Elizabeth was as a ruler, but also as a person. It tells us her hopes and dreams as a child, and how she viewed the world. Then the book explains how she becomes queen and how great of a ruler she was. This book makes you feel like you truly know Elizabeth, not as a beautiful queen, but as a great friend.
September 6, 2023
I spotted this one sitting on my shelves and realized that it was a Hanff offering that I had not yet read. So Elizabeth and all of the many players in her life have been my companions for the past couple of days. I love Hanff's approach and I learned a few things in this biography. If you want a basic understanding of Elizabeth and how she came to be and the powerhouse that she was, this is a great option.
Two passages really stood out for me.
"The queen herself sometimes went to the play-house to see Shakespeare's plays. But more often she had the actors bring a play to the palace to act before the court.
And on an evening during Christmas week in 1594, the actors brought a new play by Shakespeare to act before the queen and her court. Perhaps no play was ever acted before so many famous people.
In the center of the room sat Elizabeth, one of the greatest rulers in history. Standing near her, you might have seen Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh who had sent Englishmen to settle new lands in America.
You might have seen Francis Bacon, the great man whose books are still read today, or Ben Jonson, whose plays are still done on New York City's Broadway. You might have seen a young man named Edward Coke, whom Cecil had brought to meet the queen. This young man would one day draw up a body of laws to protect the rights of common men. And Coke's 'common laws' are the laws we Americans still live under, 400 years later.
These were the men who, on that night, watched William Shakespeare walk out on stage to sing, dance, duel, and act in one of his own great plays."
(For the record, it was A Comedy of Errors that was performed that night. And it was a night of errors for the Lord Chamberlain's men - Shakespeare's players - as the queen's request for their performance came late and they were already booked to play elsewhere in London. But one does not refuse the queen so they scrambled across the Thames and performed for her majesty as she demanded. None of that is in the book, but I love that story.)
"When she was crowned queen, England had been a poor, weak island. Elizabeth had left it the richest, strongest country in the world. She had made her country a place in which people could worship as they chose. She had made its language great. She had founded the greatest navy in the world, and she had sent that navy to find new worlds across the sea, to establish trade with other nations, to make certain that the world knew that England was a power to be reckoned with. She had done it all by putting the needs of her people above everything else.
And she had done it alone. She had done it without a husband or sons to help her. She had shown the world that a mere woman could be the greatest ruler in England's history."
Two passages really stood out for me.
"The queen herself sometimes went to the play-house to see Shakespeare's plays. But more often she had the actors bring a play to the palace to act before the court.
And on an evening during Christmas week in 1594, the actors brought a new play by Shakespeare to act before the queen and her court. Perhaps no play was ever acted before so many famous people.
In the center of the room sat Elizabeth, one of the greatest rulers in history. Standing near her, you might have seen Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh who had sent Englishmen to settle new lands in America.
You might have seen Francis Bacon, the great man whose books are still read today, or Ben Jonson, whose plays are still done on New York City's Broadway. You might have seen a young man named Edward Coke, whom Cecil had brought to meet the queen. This young man would one day draw up a body of laws to protect the rights of common men. And Coke's 'common laws' are the laws we Americans still live under, 400 years later.
These were the men who, on that night, watched William Shakespeare walk out on stage to sing, dance, duel, and act in one of his own great plays."
(For the record, it was A Comedy of Errors that was performed that night. And it was a night of errors for the Lord Chamberlain's men - Shakespeare's players - as the queen's request for their performance came late and they were already booked to play elsewhere in London. But one does not refuse the queen so they scrambled across the Thames and performed for her majesty as she demanded. None of that is in the book, but I love that story.)
"When she was crowned queen, England had been a poor, weak island. Elizabeth had left it the richest, strongest country in the world. She had made her country a place in which people could worship as they chose. She had made its language great. She had founded the greatest navy in the world, and she had sent that navy to find new worlds across the sea, to establish trade with other nations, to make certain that the world knew that England was a power to be reckoned with. She had done it all by putting the needs of her people above everything else.
And she had done it alone. She had done it without a husband or sons to help her. She had shown the world that a mere woman could be the greatest ruler in England's history."
May 13, 2017
Written for young adults, this gives a good history of Henry VIII's passing, then his children gaining the throne and all the plots by others to take the throne for themselves. I love reading about history this way because it's always quick and concise!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews