The Last Queen Elizabeth II's Seventy Year Battle to Save the House of Windsor

Description

Unseen behind the throne, two sides of the royal bloodline competed for influence–and egregious family secrets had to be protected. Meanwhile, in public, a succession of family ruptures put the monarchy under unprecedented scrutiny from the world’s media. From the turbulent loves of Princess Margaret to the tragic saga of Princess Diana, from the torments of Prince Charles to the arrival of Meghan Markle, tensions have gripped the House of Windsor. Through all this, Elizabeth II remained steadfast in her values while many of those around her seems to lose their moorings.

Clive Irving’s illuminating account casts new light on seventy tempestuous years of British history, exploring how Queen Elizabeth, uncomfortable with the pace of the social and cultural changes in her nation, and often seeming out of touch, resolutely kept the monarchy stable in a rapidly changing world.

With unparalleled insight, Irving examines the pivotal events of Elizabeth’s reign and then casts a broader eye to assess her role in the royal family’s Faustian pact with the media. The final irony is, as Irving’s carefully measured scrutiny reveals, that in the last decades of her reign Queen Elizabeth II has endured to become one of the most admired people in the world–while remaining one of the least known and understood. And in the annals of British royalty, it seems she may be the last true queen of the United Kingdom.