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Author: Brown, Craig

London, Greater London

Published on 29 August 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers (Fourth Estate Ltd) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 672 pages
163 x 243 x 47 | 996g

From one of the funniest writers of our time, the award-winning and bestselling author of One Two Three Four and Ma’am Darling turns his attention to Queen Elizabeth II in an unforgettable and fascinating biography.

THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘Enthralling … deliciously gossipy’ MAIL ON SUNDAY

‘A crown jewel among royal biographies’ OBSERVER

‘Wonderfully absurd’ SPECTATOR

‘Brilliant’ SARAH VINE

Virginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annex; Jimi Hendrix played her tune; Haile Selassie gave her a gold tiara; Dirk Bogarde watched Death in Venice with her; Andy Warhol envied her fame; Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy.

Queen Elizabeth II was famous for longer than anyone who has ever lived. When people spoke of her, they spoke of themselves; when they dreamed of her, they dreamed of themselves. She mirrored their hopes and anxieties. To the optimist, she seemed an optimist; to the pessimist, a pessimist; to the awestruck, charismatic; and to the cynical, humdrum. Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation.

Combining biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire, the bestselling and award-winning author of Ma’am Darling and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this most public yet private of sovereigns.

‘An enthralling reverie on memory, identity, coincidence and meaning – testing, teasing, charming, moving and deceptively wise’

RORY STEWART

‘Completely and utterly brilliant and exquisitely funny and fascinating. This book is, dare I say, majestic. Craig Brown has no peers – I would curtsey to him if I met him’ MARINA HYDE

‘You wouldn’t think the world needed another book about Queen Elizabeth – but how wrong you’d be. Craig Brown’s wholly original and enthralling biography is absolute heaven from start to finish’ INDIA KNIGHT

‘Craig Brown continues to reinvent the art of biography… utterly fascinating’ JASON COWLEY

‘Brown is as sharp and dryly funny as his subject’ EVENING STANDARD

‘It is a strength of Brown’s excavating talents that he can fill 650 pages with so many attendant gems’ THE TIMES

‘Brown’s wry, gossipy style has made him one of the UK’s best-loved biographers’

GUARDIAN

‘Witty, sharp and unforgettable’ WOMAN’S OWN

‘Wonderfully readable – to both lovers and haters of monarchy’ LITERARY REVIEW

A JAZZ FM SUMMER BOOK CLUB PICK

Craig Brown’s book One Two Three Four won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2020.