ELIZABETH: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT

From many meetings with her throughout his life, and through a close friendship with Prince Philip, Gyles Brandeth became well acquainted with the late Queen Elizabeth II and the wider Royal Family. Having kept a record of each and every one of the encounters over a number of years in his diaries, he paints a vivid picture of the Queen in this biography.

Brandeth walks readers through the Queen’s younger years, outlining her unwavering commitment to her country from the day she became Queen aged just 25, right up to the last days of her life. However, this is not just any biography, with Brandeth’s close relationship with the Royal Family providing rich colour and intimate details about the Queen’s life.

From the comfort she found in watching BBC crime drama Line of Duty with her Master of Household, Sir Tony JohnstoneBurt, after Prince Philip’s death, to her spirited sense of humour, her relationship with the Sussexes (far smoother than the media would have you believe), to her thoughts on Prince Andrew, in whom she allegedly never lost confidence. And, perhaps most shockingly, claims that she was battling cancer in the last year or so of her life.

On social media, Brandeth has claimed that this book is his attempt to “both tell her story and discover how she became the very special person that she was. Who was she? What was she really like? And why was she the exceptional person she was?”

Don’t miss this trusted account of the incredible life of the most famous and arguably best-loved Head of State on Earth.

Michael Joseph, £25; ISBN: 978-024158-258-9