Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait by Gyles Brandreth

My review

3/5 stars

I recently read Gyles Brandreth's book about Prince Philip, and while I wasn't massively enamoured of the book, I am a fan of the author so I decided to give his book on the Queen herself a go. I listened on audiobook this time, as the author read the book himself and I thought it would be good to hear his voice narrating his own words.

Much like his book on Philip, I found the same niggles about this one on Elizabeth. I struggled at times with the jumpiness of the timeline, as it served to make the narrative quite repetitive. Having sort of adjusted to it in the first book, I was able to navigate around it slightly easier this time, but it still wasn't ideal.

Moving on to nicer stuff, I enjoyed the detailed history that he gave of Elizabeth's family. It gave a real sense of how she came to be the person she was, and the true impact of how she was raised. It was also a really good history lesson!

As with his insight into Philip's life, the author's personal connection with the Queen added invaluable meaning to the story-telling and elevated the book from biography to something deeper. His matter-of-fact writing style made the personal anecdotes even funnier; I actually laughed out loud when he recalled a moment where the Queen was discussing a "homicidal horse routine".

He covered her whole life, from beginning right up to what happened in the event of her death, with respect and honesty, which I appreciated immensely; it was particularly evident in the diary entries that he included at the end of the book.

Book blurb

Gyles Brandreth first met the Queen in 1968, when he was twenty.

Over the next fifty years he met her many times, both at public and at private events. Through his friendship with the Duke of Edinburgh, he was given privileged access to Elizabeth II.

He kept a record of all those encounters, and his conversations with the Queen over the years, his meetings with her family and friends, and his observations of her at close quarters are what make this very personal account of her extraordinary life uniquely fascinating.

From her childhood in the 1920s to the era of Harry and Meghan in the 2020s, from her war years at Windsor Castle to her death at Balmoral, this is both a record of a tumultuous century of royal history and a truly intimate portrait of a remarkable woman.

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You can buy the book here now. It was published by Michael Joseph.

For more on the author, you can head to his website or check out his Goodreads page.