Just Jennifer

The Queen: A Life in Brief by Robert Lacey (Harper Perennial, May 2012)

Distilled from royal biographer Robert Lacey’s longer works on Queen Elizabeth II, this short (six chapters) book, full of photographs of the only monarch of England most people have known in their lifetime, offers an overview of the woman who was born not to rule England, but who has become probably the most recognized world leader of the twentieth century.  Born the first daughter to the second son of King George V, Lilibet had no reason to ever think she would be crowned queen, but after the death of her grandfather, abdication of her uncle and the coronation of her father, George VI, an eleven year old Elizabeth realized that she would be the next monarch to rule Great Britain, a task that came sooner than she expected when her father died in February 1952, just five years after Elizabeth’s marriage to Philip Mountbatten.  Throughout the following fifty years the world has watched as Elizabeth gave birth to four children, including the next king of England, Charles, raised her family, watched as they married, had families of their own, divorced and remarried, and suffered great losses, changing the face of the traditional monarchy.  From the photos in the book, it is evident that while Queen Elizabeth has a great love for her nation, she also has a fierce love for her family: a grinning son (Andrew) greets his mother upon his return from the Falklands War and a grieving daughter keeps both eyes on her mother’s casket as it is borne out of Westminster Abby with all the pomp and circumstances befitting the Queen Mother.