The Queen Mother

September 28, 2009
With unrestricted access to the queen mother's personal papers, letters and diaries, this respectful, mostly uncritical biography by veteran journalist Shawcross (Sideshow
) focuses on the courtship of Elizabeth (1900–2002), the daughter of a Scottish earl, by the future King George VI; the shocking abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson; and WWII, when Elizabeth's narrow escape from a bomb that hit Buckingham Palace helped her commiserate with her subjects during the blitz. Throughout, the queen mother is depicted as vivacious, charming, devout and dutiful, a dedicated protector of the arts if not an intellectual, and socially conservative. Shawcross repeatedly pulls his punches when it comes to revealing the workings of Elizabeth's heart, particularly her anguish over her nemesis, Wallis Simpson, and over her role in aborting her daughter Princess Margaret's romance with the married courtier Peter Townsend. The dearth of information on the queen mother's relationship with the late Princess Diana is particularly egregious. Although readers sense some of the parade of people who crossed her path, the royal engagements that filled her calendar and the pivotal historical events that shaped her life, Shawcross delivers a disappointingly bland celebration of the queen mother. 32 pages of photos.

September 15, 2009
Former Sunday Times journalist Shawcross follows up his tribute to Queen Elizabeth II (Queen and Country, 2002) with an extremely lengthy biography of the much beloved Queen Mother.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) was six months old when Queen Victoria died, which should give readers an idea of the broad sweep of years and historical events our subject experienced in full. The ninth child of Lord Glamis (the Earl of Strathmore), the Queen Mother traced her ancestry deep into Scotland, though mostly grew up in a grand country home in Hertfordshire and in London. Known as Buffy, the young woman was comely, small of stature and full of fun, and apparently had many suitors. When the Duke of York, George V's second son, Albert ("Bertie"), proposed, she rejected him—several times; he was unprepossessing and a stutterer, nothing like his dashing older brother, Edward. However, a taste of royal life was convincing enough and they married in 1923. It seemed they had a happy, stable marriage until his death in 1952, when their first-born, Elizabeth, ascended to the throne. Nonetheless, Buffy and Bertie were, like the rest of the country, shocked and horrified at Edward VIII's abdication on the eve of World War II, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis. Now Queen Elizabeth (the first commoner to become Queen Consort since the 17th century) to King George VI—he took his father's name for the sake of continuity—she won the admiration of the world for her resiliency and loyalty during the war, remaining in London despite the bombing of Buckingham Palace. An intrepid traveler, Elizabeth was, like her daughter,"a good judge of horseflesh," and adored fishing and picnics, among other things. A consummate insider, Shawcross toes the royal line, rarely straying from his slavish devotion to his subject.

Tucking scandals neatly under the rug, the author unfurls an exhaustive biography of the Queen Mother, which may leave non-British readers merely exhausted.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 15, 2009
This work, with royal authorization, is intended as the definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (19002002), with Shawcross ("Allies") granted unprecedented access to private papers. The beginning, an enchanting look at the British aristocracy prior to World War I, may be the best part. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon turned down many proposals from King George V's second son, "Bertie," and Shawcross offers no explanation as to why she suddenly capitulated. The couple's ascent to the throne following Edward VIII's abdication changed their and their daughters' lives completely. King George VI and his queen were just what England needed during World War II: resilient and tireless. Frustratingly, Shawcross avoids a number of incidents that show the "Queen Mum" in a less than flattering light, such as the extent of her perhaps understandable vitriol regarding the Duchess of Windsor. Almost entirely missing here is Diana, Princess of Wales, though a comparison of these two women who married into royalty would have been useful. VERDICT This is very long for a fluff piece, lacking historical objectivity or analysis. It will interest Anglophiles but may disappoint some who love digging into the lives of 20th-century royals, and it will not satisfy serious readers of history. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 7/09.]B. Allison Gray, Santa Barbara Lib. Syst., Goleta, CA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2009
Historian Shawcross was selected to write the authorized, Buckingham Palaceapproved biography of Queen Mother Elizabeth, the late consort of George VI (who reigned during the years 193652) and mother of the current sovereign. The Queen Mother remained, until her death at 102 in 2002, the most popular member of the royal family, an affectionate, floral-hatted reminder of a more genteel era. As queen, she stood as a beacon of hope during the dark days of World War II, and after the premature death of her husband the king, she continued to work diligently at putting both a human and a dignified face on the public image of the royal family during the many decades of her widowhood. Shawcross biography (at 1,000 pages) is a complete marshaling of the events in the long life of this earls daughter who was unexpectedly propelled onto the throne when her husband succeeded as king after his older brother abdicated amid scandal in 1936. Analysis and interpretation take a backseat to authoritative detail, but a definite portrait of this first commoner to become Queen Consort since the seventeenth century emerges: charm personified, forever looking on the positive side, and at ease with herself and her role and function within the royal-family fishbowl, the latter a quality that helped bolster her shy husbands self-confidence during his short reign. A biography to last the ages.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)