Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain's Queen

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Read for Some...Tiring for Others
Review: Elizabeth is a well-researched and very detailed chronicle of Her Majesty's life. At times, however, I thought the biography too detailed, especially about the innane and the irrelevant. I appreciated the descriptions about English political dynamics and the role of the monarch in a constitutional kingdom, but the seemingly endless banter about royal affairs were to me a little tabloid-ish. I would have wished for more political and historical context (something in the tradition of Robert Karo's Master of the Senate), but, with Bradford being a titled aristocrat herself, I suppose this is all I can expect. Elizabeth is an interesting read for those interested in royal life, but it will be tiresome for those yearning for a more substantive study of the reigning British monarch and the British government.

Rating:
Summary: A Balanced Biograhy
Review: I found this book very enjoyable and informative. I have read many other biographies of Queen Elizabeth II, but there were some
new details presented here. Nothing shocking or in bad taste.

The author has written fairly about a woman whose life we cannot imagine. You wonder how she has managed to cope these years.

I came away with the belief that the powers that are behind the throne, the men in grey, should be eliminated or at least brought into this century. However, tradition is what keeps Elizabeth going and where would she be without it?

Rating:
Summary: THE Definitive Book about Queen Elizabeth II
Review: The most detailed book regarding the life of HRH Princess Elizabeth, then Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, I've ever read. Anyone with any interest about Great Britain's queen -and her family- definitely should read this book. Although not always flattering, Sarah Bradford has portrayed HM The Queen as a real person, with real, everyday type problems, whose entire life has been dedicated to service to her country, but at the expense of a stable family life. At certain points, it's as if the queen would happily trade in her extravagent, royal lifestyle just to be like everybody else (one of her subjects).

The sources Sarah Bradford uses for her book, along with her own thorough, detailed reseach of HM Queen Elizabeth II, make for fascinating, non-stop, reading.