Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait

Product Information

To Gyles’ merit, the comparisons of former members of the Royal family (David and Wallis, Meghan and Harry) provided new and interesting food for thought. I particularly enjoyed reading about HM’s interest in the Commonwealth. This book was written with so much respect and affection for our Queen and told so many stories of her humour, humility and sheer love for her family and country. I thought I knew all there was to know but Gyles had so much more to tell. Gyles Brandreth is one of Britain’s busiest after-dinner speakers and award ceremony hosts. He has won awards himself, and been nominated for awards, as a public speaker, novelist, children’s writer, broadcaster (Sony), political diarist (Channel Four), journalist (British Press Awards), theatre producer (Olivier), and businessman (British Tourist Authority Come to Britain Trophy). Brief moment of illumination that even the Queen / her team played into the competition of who could get what imagery into the media.

Conversely, Sir Alan “Tommy” Lascelles, for reasons unknown, gets almost his whole Who’s Who entry printed, as if the fact that he was a member of the Travellers private gentleman’s club is important to his estimation of the then Lt Philip Mountbatten. This is a bit of a painful review for me as I am a huge fan of Brandreth and interested in the Royal Family. I hugely enjoyed Philip, his previously published book about the Royals, and found this to be a rehashed version of Philip with some hastily thrown in trivia tidbits about The Queen. This book was a fantastic insight into our late Queen. I listened to this on Audible and I think because it was narrated by Gyles himself, it added that extra "specialness" to the book. It's simply a wonderful portrait into the extraordinary life of Queen Elizabeth!Far too much talk of Harry and Megan (who he obviously doesn't like), far too little mention of Prince William and Catherine. Brilliant . . . There is so much in this book you won't find anywhere else' LORRAINE Read more Look Inside Details So readable and refreshing even after the millions of words that have been written about Prince Philip in the past couple of weeks' THE TIMES It seems to me that this book was a bit rushed. Phrases are repeated so often throughout it that I would audibly sigh when encountering them again — “she was a woman of her class and generation, intelligent but not intellectual, not politically correct…” etc. Over and over. And yes, that might be an astute observation of her majesty but to read it as many times as I did made me feel weary.

A former Oxford Scholar, President of the Oxford Union and MP for the City of Chester, Gyles Brandreth’s career has ranged from being a Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London’s West End. A prolific broadcaster (in programmes ranging from Just a Minute to Have I Got News for You), an acclaimed interviewer (principally for the Sunday Telegraph), a novelist, children’s author and biographer, his best-selling diary, Breaking the Code, was described as ‘By far the best political diary of recent years, far more perceptive and revealing than Alan Clark’s’ ( The Times) and ‘Searingly honest, wildly indiscreet, and incredibly funny’ ( Daily Mail). He is the author of two acclaimed royal biographies: Philip Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage and Charles Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair. In 2007/2008, John Murray in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the US began publishing The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries, his series of Victorian murder mysteries featuring Oscar Wilde as the detective. Indeed, Brandreth is as much a character in this book as the Queen herself. There is a lot of “as X put it to me”, and “as X told me”. This is Brandreth’s magical mystery tour, and he is a fine guide if you like your guides fully involved. I liked it better than the Katie Nicholl book I read last year; it’s more gentle, less tabloid-y. Brandreth makes little mention of the modern Meghan & Harry controversy; he’s actually quite kind about them because he says that’s what the Queen was, kind. She found the whole tabloid culture wearisome, as did Prince Philip.Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait" is a biography of the late queen from the perspective of someone who interacted with her and her family frequently. Brandreth knew her well and admired her. Old school himself, his book is peppered with quotations from people who knew her as well as occasionally her own words. It’s very dense and detailed so I would only recommend it—for those who like to read a book cover to cover—to dedicated Royalists like myself.