Most biographies of Elizabeth II follow the “Crown in Crisis” narrative, which frames the Queen as lurching from one disaster to another, and portrays her reign as one of managed decline. The TV series The Crown is an outstanding example of this story of catastrophes – and Hardman is having none of it. He maintains that, for most of the so-called crises of her reign, the Queen remained firmly in control.

Rich in new material, wit, and original thought. With intimate and unrivalled access to those who really know the story, Queen of Our Times not only gives us the real Elizabeth II, but it also reminds us, often movingly, that we are living through one of history’s greatest reigns.” The author is a well known writer and broadcaster, specializing in the monarchy and history. He has spoken to and interviewed many people who knew the Queen including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge. This is a new biography of the Queen and her role published for the Platinum Jubilee earlier this year, taking her life and reign up until the beginning of 2022 (so some of the references to record-breaking and transition are now redundant). It is very comprehensive, covering her personal life, constitutional issues, domestic issues, politics, foreign policy, everything basically. It is very readable though, and never flags or bores at any point. With fascinating revelations from those who knew her best and special access to unseen royal papers granted by Elizabeth II herself, author and royal expert Robert Hardman explores the full, astonishing life of our longest reigning monarch in this authoritative yet intimate biography. Shy but with a steely self-confidence; inscrutable despite ten decades in the public eye; unflappable; devout; indulgent; outwardly reserved, inwardly passionate; unsentimental; inquisitive; young at heart.

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Princess Elizabeth represents the King in 1951, the year before her accession to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II

There are plenty of good stories. Who knew that Thelma Holland, who did the Queen’s makeup for her Coronation, was the daughter-in-law of Oscar Wilde? There’s an anecdote about the sharp-eyed Queen inspecting film footage of Queen Victoria at one of her Jubilees. “That’s interesting,” she remarked after a pause. “They had eight horses on the landau.” Or a glimpse of the Queen on a Pacific cruise in the 1970s helping one of her equerries to dress up as a Polynesian beauty. The Queen was kneeling on the floor, and “he was stripped to the waist and she was fitting a brassiere on him.”When a single mom and aspiring actress ends up on an important jury, she must team up with an FBI agent to hunt down a vicious and powerful mob boss. Robert Hardman, one of Britain’s most acclaimed royal biographers, now wraps up the full story of one of the undisputed greats in a thousand years of monarchy. Hardman distills Elizabeth's complex life into a must-read study of dynastic survival and renewal. It is a portrait of a world leader who remains as intriguing today as the day she came to the Throne at age twenty-five. While I’m not interested in the celebrity of monarchy, I am interested in the governance/ geopolitical precedent of the English system. Most of my reading of the Royal Family has taken place in context of history and biography. I also watch a few documentaries. Though I write more of my musings about the ethics of the system in my review, the only other book I have also read/ reviewed is the inferior: Queen Elizabeth's reign is the longest by any British monarch and the longest by any female head of the State. The world has changed a lot from 1952 when she became the Queen, and she will always be remembered for her sense of duty and dedication for more than 70 years when she was the Queen.

This article from Elite Daily contains a nice list of documentaries if you would like more in that genre...When discussing current affairs or politics, particularly foreign affairs, she never seems bored by it, or tired by it. I think it's that sort of combination of knowing "I have to do this" and finding it interesting at the same time."