Book Review: "The Queen" by Andrew Morton

You're probably wondering why on earth I would read this book. It was free and it was a fair length. That was basically it at first. But another reason is because I enjoyed the show The Crown and so, it only makes sense to read a book that goes through separating facts from fictions - and to be fair, there aren't a lot of fictions about the show it seems. From the birth of the little princess and the way in which her father was reluctantly to become the king, all the way to meeting and marrying the veteran prince, Duke of Edinburgh and even down to the death of her father, queendom and beyond, this book actually gives us a lot about a woman who basically embodied the greatness and modernisation of the British 20th Century.

The book begins with the childhood of the then, Princess Elizabeth and the stages after the birth of Princess Margaret. Back when I read A Voyage Around the Queen, I admitted that perhaps I am overly involved with the story of Princess Margaret - she really was the rockstar princess. Anyways, we get a look inside the palace, at the way in which the princesses were educated and how the abdication had a terrible impact on the family. We get the King through the eyes of his daughter - a man who reluctantly takes the throne, a man who broke down in tears when he learned he was going to be King. They were not tears of happiness. He was terrified.

I often find myself feeling sorry for King George VI, his older brother basically abandoned him when the country was on the cusp of war and then on top of that, left his brother to explain what the deal was when it came to the abdicator getting friendly with the Nazis whilst still receiving an allowance from the British Crown. There is thus no question as to why King George VI broke down in tears when he learned his brother wouldn't give up his marriage for the crown and that he was to be King. I think he knew that his older brother had left him to die.

So of course, when Elizabeth II became the queen, she quickly cut the allowance very quickly as her first act of office. We get some great details about the wedding of Elizabeth and Philip and how there were a lot of things going a little wrong before the service. For example, the pearls were still on display somewhere else and the Princess was supposed to wear them to her wedding, on the day someone had to go on foot to get them because if you went by car - well, it's London on the day of a royal wedding, you're not getting anywhere. After a few years' of being married and the birth of their son though - the couple were thrown into the top rank of royalty as they returned from Kenya early as the King had died. This is something that is shown in The Crown as well, but I think there are far more details in this book.

There's no wonder as to how it initially went. There was someone trying to publish a book, who was then cut off from the royal family, there was the new Queen making a name for herself as she travelled around the world whilst her children waited at home. There was indefinite leave to the Duke of Edinburgh from the service, a man nobody thought would ever be able to sit down. But atop of this, we move from Queen Elizabeth II's days as a daughter of a family to a matriarch of one. These are two very different situations and so, there are many stories to be had from the past.

Andrew Morton's writing is very factual yes, but it is also littered with moments in which the Queen can definitely make you laugh. For instance, there's a scene where gifted cutlery starts breaking and instead of getting weirded out over it, she laughs it off which kind of makes the reader laugh too - but I think the part that made me laugh the most was when Morton mentioned the Queen did her best impression of a wrestler. For some reason I can definitely imagine that happening.

Of course, as we move through the years, we get more and more of the stuff that is more known to our own times - the death of Diana, the fire at the palace and of course, the whole James Bond thing at the Olympics. This book was both fascinating and also offers something different to other books about the Queen. Instead of trying to offer an intimate portrait, it shows us why she was most suited to become the Queen she became - the best person for the job.