Andrew Morton’s royal tour
Biographer spotlights Queen Elizabeth II
For Andrew Morton, his current book tour for “The Queen: Her Life” has had a string of coincidences that make it preposterously welltimed.
Morton, 69, is a virtual royal biographer, most notably with the revelatory 1992 “Diana: My Story” which rocked the palace and made the Princess of Wales’s exit inevitable.
Morton’s current book tour for his biography of Queen Elizabeth II ($30, Grand Central Publishing) was pulled from its 2023 publication date following the beloved monarch’s death on Sept. 8. It’s now released in time for holiday giving.
Even more timely: Morton’s Diana opus (which became a ’93 television film) returned to bestseller lists thanks to the current Season 5 of “The Crown” which details the impact that book, with its extraordinary honesty and full cooperation from the princess, had on the monarchy. Morton even gets his ‘Crown’ moment when he’s portrayed by actor Andrew Steele.
What, Morton was asked in a phone interview, does he want readers to take away from his latest biography?
“I think an assessment of the Queen’s character, how she changed through her reign, how she changes as a human being, as a sovereign, from being very cautious to someone who’s more relaxed and authentic.”
“The Crown” presents the Queen as a delinquent mother. Morton disagrees. “This is one of the themes of the book — she’s had a bad rap as a mother and was actually a nurturing mother.
“Obviously in the early months of being queen, she was being pulled this way, that way. She was a CEO of ‘Great Britain Inc.’ at a time when very few women had any kind of responsibility in the boardroom. Secondly, she was a mother. Thirdly, she was the wife to a man who felt frustrated and ignored.
“She was struggling in those early days to cope with all the different demands on her. Thank goodness, she had the kind of level headedness that enabled her to survive because it could have overwhelmed a lesser character.
“It’s interesting,” he added, “that she and Prince Philip had a kind of second family with Andrew and Edward in the ‘60s when she felt able to be able to respond to them more as a mother.”
Controversy, said the author of biographies on royals Meghan and Harry, Prince Andrew, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, doesn’t sell his books.
“It’s good writing, fresh information, an interesting perspective, a compelling narrative. A successful biography is not necessarily about sensation. I mean, we get enough of that. A book is a time for reflection. And a more subtle reading of history.”
Andrew Morton has an “In Conversation” event Sunday, Nov. 20 at Wellesley Books at 2 p.m..