Here is the girl who helped convalescing soldiers during the First World War ... the young Duchess of York helping her reluctant husband assume the throne when his brother abdicated ... the Queen refusing to take refuge from the bombing of ...

This lavishly illustrated book celebrates the life of the Queen Mother, the best - loved member of the Royal Family.

Photographs and classic newspaper front pages trace the life of the Queen Mother in context with the great events of the century.

Chronicles the life of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, from her birth in London in 1900 to her marriage in 1923 to Prince Albert, who was to become King George VI, to her hundredth birthday.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4 August, 1900.

This is the first major study of the Queen Mother to be published since her death. An authoritative and affectionate biography of the Late Queen Mother.

It also reveals a deeper and more interesting character, forged by good sense, love of country, duty, humour and an instinct for what is right. This is a wonderful book, authoritative, frank and entertaining' - Daily Telegraph

William Shawcross's official biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, published in September 2009, was a huge critical and commercial success.One of the great revelations of the book was Queen Elizabeth's insightful, witty private ...