One of the revelations of William Shawcross's official biography of the Queen Mother was her private correspondence. Indeed the Sunday Times described her letters as 'wonderful.. .brimful of liveliness & irreverence steeliness & sweetness.' Queen Elizabeth was a prolific correspondent from her earliest childhood & her letters offer readers a vivid insight into the person behind the public face. They reveal
- in her own words
- the little girl writing to her family; the young woman who eventually accepted Prince Albert's proposal; the Duchess of York embracing the public role demanded of her on royal tours both at home & abroad. They reveal too her shock when she & her husband realized that he would become King the dreadful toll exacted by the Second World War culminating in the King's tragically early death & her determination to find a role for herself during her long widowhood. Full of wit acute observation & a deeply held sense of duty Queen Elizabeth's letters offer a chronicle not only of her long life but of the twentieth century.