Elizabeth the Queen

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Authors: Sally Bedell Smith

BOOK: Elizabeth the Queen
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The Queen leaving the Belgian Embassy in London, 1963.
Reginald Davis MBE (London)

Copyright © 2012 by Sally Bedell Smith
All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Sally Bedell.
Elizabeth the Queen : inside the life of a modern monarch / Sally Bedell Smith.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-679-64393-7
1. Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926– 2. Great Britain—History—Elizabeth II, 1952– 3. Queens—Great Britain—Biography. I. Title.
DA490.S55 2011
941.084092—dc23
[B]
2011023661

Front-jacket photograph: © Yousuf Karsh
Back-jacket photographs: © Hugo Burnand/AFP/Getty Images (top), © Tim Graham/Getty Images (bottom left), © Central Press/Getty Images (bottom right)

www.atrandom.com

v3.1_r1

From “The Opening of Parliament,”
M
ARY
W
ILSON
,
wife of Harold Wilson,
Prime Minister, 1964–70 and 1974–76
They love her for her wisdom and her pride
,
Her friendship and her quiet majesty;
And soon the streets of Britain will be thronged
With crowds rejoicing in her Jubilee
But as the cool unfaltering voice reads on
,
A different picture forms upon the air—
A small quick figure, walking all alone
Across a glen studded with standing deer …
She notes a crumbling wall, an open gate
,
With countrywoman’s eyes she views the scene;
Yet, walking free upon her own estate
Still, in her solitude, she is the Queen
“She sort of expands when she laughs
.
She laughs with her whole face.”

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in New Brunswick, Canada, during her Golden Jubilee celebrations, October 2002.
Norm Betts/Rex USA

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

PREFACE

ONE
  A Royal Education

TWO
  Love Match

THREE
  Destiny Calls

FOUR
  “Ready, Girls?”

FIVE
  Affairs of State

SIX
  Made for Television

SEVEN
  New Beginnings

EIGHT
  Refuge in Routines

NINE
  Daylight on the Magic

TEN
  Ring of Silence

ELEVEN
  “Not Bloody Likely!”

TWELVE
  Feeling the Love

THIRTEEN
  Iron Lady and English Rose

FOURTEEN
  A Very Special Relationship

FIFTEEN
  Family Fractures

SIXTEEN
  
Annus Horribilis

SEVENTEEN
  Tragedy and Tradition

EIGHTEEN
  Love and Grief

NINETEEN
  Moving Pictures

TWENTY
  A Soldier at Heart

TWENTY-ONE
  Long Live the Queen

Photo Insert 1

Photo Insert 2

Dedication

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SOURCE NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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About the Author

PREFACE

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