Elizabeth and Philip: A Story of Young Love, Marriage and Monarchy

by Tessa Dunlop

This deeply moving story explores the attractions—and the tensions—that defined the most extraordinary royal marriage of the past seventy-five years.

She was peaches-and-cream innocence; he was a handsome war hero. Both had royal blood coursing through their veins. The marriage of Britain's Princess Elizabeth to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten in November 1947 is remembered as the beginning of an extraordinary lifelong union, but their success was not guaranteed. Elizabeth and Philip: A Story of Young Love, Marriage, and Monarchy plunges the reader back into 1940s Britain, where a teenage princess fell in love with a foreign prince. There were fears of a flirtatious "Greek" fortune hunter stealing off with England's crown jewels—and then subsequent efforts by the Establishment to reframe Philip as the perfect fit for Britain's most famous family.

Drawing on original archives as well as interviews with Elizabeth and Philip's contemporaries who are still alive today, historian Dr. Tessa Dunlop discovers a post-war world on the cusp of major change.

Unprecedented opinion on Philip's suitability was a harbinger of pressures to come for a couple whose marriage was branded the ultimate global fairytale. Theirs was a partnership like no other. Six years after Elizabeth promised to be an obedient wife, Philip got down on bended knee and committed himself as the queen's "liege man of life and limb."

This deeply touching history explores the ups and downs, as well as the attractions and the tensions, that defined an extraordinary relationship. The high stakes involved might have devoured a less committed pair—but not Elizabeth and Philip. They shared a common purpose, one higher even than marriage, with roots much deeper than young love. Happy and glorious, for better or for worse, they were heavily invested in a God-given mission. Monarchy was the magic word.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Royalty, British Literature, Marriage, Historical

345 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 10, 2022

About the author

Tessa Dunlop is a television presenter, radio broadcaster and historian. She has presented history programmes on BBC1 London, BBC2, Discovery Europe, Channel 4, UKTV History and the History Channel (USA).

In 2005 Dunlop won a Royal Television Society award for her work on regional magazine show Inside Out West.

In 2007 Dunlop filmed Paranormal Egypt, a six-part series, with Derek Acorah on location in Egypt.

Dunlop read history at Oxford University, where she also won the Gertrude Easton Prize. Her articles have appeared in a number of British newspaper publications including The Guardian, The Independent, The Mail on Sunday and The Herald.

Reviews

[Jane Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just indulged in my secret pleasure of reading about the Royal Family. This was a well done book with interesting sections where the author interviewed contemporaries of Elizabeth and Philip for their memories.

[jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. Gossip and snark - I pretty much expected that. The book is also extraordinarily repetitive. But, did the publishers forget to proofread the manuscript? A bit embarrassing, and highlighting the author's weak understanding of English. She apparently has trouble distinguishing "passed" and "past", is not familiar with the "pillbox" hat favored by the Queen, believing that it is a "pillar box". There were a number of other misspellings and grammatical errors. Mind you, these were not what is sometimes referred to as "British-isms". Nonetheless, the material is somewhat interesting.

[Gary Holtzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers well trod territory but in a very different way than we've seen before. Although it does take a very deep dive into both spouses' (very different) early lives and the first decade or so of their marriage, it is in a real sense not a "royalty" book at all. The biographical information is virtually all from published sources, but the use to which the author puts them is fresh. She unpacks how the British public, in conversation with its traditional institutions (monarchy, government, church) and evolving media used this young couple as a sort of canvas on which to project the national discourse around a whole host of issues around gender and family that postwar British society was trying to hash out: Whether married women should work outside the home, proper roles of husband and wives, premarital sex, divorce and the reform of divorce laws, whether parents should be hands on or hands off, what it means to be British, and whether the Royal Family's role was to be the model of Christian family life.

There were several topics on which I found Dr. Dunlop's analysis as applied to the royal couple especially fascinating. One was the feeling of the public that, with the advent of opinion polls, they were entitled to a say in the marital decisions of the royal family. The evolution of modern media coverage of the monarchy is a central theme of the book. Another important topic Dr. Dunlop is especially interesting on is the way she forensically deconstructs how Elizabeth and Philip were from a generation in which the conventional wisdom that the spouses should not do everything together but that it was healthy for them to have independent interests, separate friends and even separate bedrooms. The author discusses the rise in the 1950s of an ideal of "companionate" marriage, in which women started to look to one man to fulfil what had previously been separate roles of lover and best friend. The royal couple stuck to the older model, which as the decades went on seemed incomprehensible to younger generations. A third topic which I found very interesting was the gendered nature of interest in the royal marriage and how the media tried to appeal to female readers in their framing of the royal romance.

A very notable feature of the book is the author's use of interviews with very elderly people in their late 90s or early 100s, who give first hand accounts of how the discourse around the royal romance and marriage were experienced by ordinary members of the public.

All in all, a very interesting read about media, gender and family, in postwar Britain, not just - or even primarily - for people interested in royal history.

[Kath · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a savory appetizer that left me wanting more. It only covers the early years of the Queen and Prince Phillip's marriage and I hope maybe she'll continue the story in another book. What makes this one different is including still living contemporaries of the Queen and Phillip for their views and recollections of that time. I always felt Prince Phillip was the Queen's one true love and I'd like to think she was his. Prince Phillip resembled my dear Father in Law in his later years and he definitely was his own man, Prince or not. The image of the Queen sitting alone at his funeral will always be heartbreaking. They were both one of a kind.

[Kel-El · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting biography on the Queen and Duke right up to their respective death. The Archbishop well sums it that "theirs was an inspirational example of Christian marriage - rooted I'm friendship, nourished by shared faith, and turned outwards in service to others".

[Bookwormgyrl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is well writing and throughly researched but for me an Anglophile not much new information. But the book would be good for someone reading about TheQueen or the Royal Family for the first time. 3.0 Bookwormgyrl folios

[Laurie Byro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this, it does reaffirm much of the "Crown" which of course, has fictionalized conversations between them, but the instincts are right on, and as we suspected, theirs was a love story and a fairy tale. Enjoyed

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book.

[Emma Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual approach on how these types of books are normally written, but I think it worked. A thoughtful tribute to two people who gave up their life for service.

[Susan Eaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly lightweight analysis of a long marriage. I found the author's side comments distracting and flippant. It did not really add anything to my understanding of this period.

[Jean Mehochko · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book; however, quite a few typos gave me pause.

[Nafeesa Islam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Focused on the early days of Elizabeth and Philip’s marriage. At the end I got nostalgic which made me give the book an extra star.

[Rebekah McKnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to on Spotify. I love Tessa Dunlop’s work.

[Heather T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very captivating and informative. The ending seems a bit abrupt, and much of the later years of their marriage are glossed over or not covered at all.

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light look at the relationship between two people married for 73 years. That is an impressive in and of itself.
Dunlop’s book is more of a gossipy, friendly overview of Elizabeth and Philip. There’s no deep analysis and plenty of extras to enjoy.
I appreciated the pictures, some I have never seen.
It’s a good tribute to a couple that epitomized service and duty while being the guardians for each other.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Pegasus Books for the digital copy.

[Lavette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good on facts, narrative not gripping. Strickly my opinion.