Elizabeth II: In Private. in Public. Her Story.

A celebration of the life of Queen Elizabeth II on the centenary of her birth, by the bestselling author of The Making of a King and Queen of Our Times.

Elizabeth II was not born to reign. Like that other great queen in modern history, Victoria, the throne came to her by indirect means. Yet she would become one of the most beloved monarchs in history, surpassing almost every entry in the royal record book.

As a child, her idyllic life on the royal fringe was transformed first by the scandalous love life of her wayward uncle and then by war. Despite multiple attacks on the family home, she watched and learned from her father has he led his nation through much suffering to victory, falling in love along the way.

At the age of just twenty-five--a young wife and mother of two--she suddenly found herself head of state of much of the Earth, with the greatest statesman of the age as her senior adviser.

Her coronation was a moment of national rejuvenation, though swiftly followed by the first of many challenges and crises - personal, political, and global - which would test her over seven decades. The highs and lows of ordinary family life, for her, would be mercilessly scrutinised and magnified through the lens of the world's media. Unlike Shakespeare's monarchs, the dramatists would set to work in her own lifetime.

Yet she also managed to remain an endlessly fascinating mystery to the end, revered and mourned worldwide.

No one has written more authoritatively on the life of Elizabeth II than Robert Hardman, the only biographer to have interviewed the entire Royal Family. On the centenary of her birth, amid all the commemorating and celebrating, it is time to bring the whole extraordinary story of her life to a new audience in a fresh, accessible, concise portrait--one which will enthrall those who have now come to realize that Elizabeth II was not merely the most famous woman in the world, captured on banknotes, coins, and The Crown. She was one of history's all-time greats, and this finely-written and original narrative reveals why.

Author: Robert Hardman
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 05/19/2026
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.07h x 5.84w x 1.74d
ISBN: 9798897101733

About the Author
Robert Hardman is the bestselling author of The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy; Queen of Our Times; Her Majesty; and Queen of the World, all available from Pegasus Books. He is a leading author, commentator, and filmmaker on royal life in Britain. Robert writes for the Daily Mail in London.