Queen Elizabeth : the Queen Mother : the official biography / William Shawcross.

Letter written on 13 September 1940 by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on endpapers.

Originally published London Macmillan, 2009.

"First published in 2009. This paperback edition published in 2010 by Pan Books" --T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 965-1056) and index.

An Edwardian childhood, 1900-1914 -- Tending the wounded, 1914-1918 -- Prince Albert, 1918-1923 -- A royal wedding, 1923 -- Duchess of York, 1923-1924 -- On safari, 1924-1925 -- Birth of a princess, 1925-1927 -- An Australasian assignment, 1927 -- The long weekend, 1927-1936 -- Abdication, 1936-1937 -- Queen Consort, 1937- 1939 -- Across the Atlantic, 1939 -- The Queen at war, 1939-1941 -- Years like great black oxen, 1942-1945 -- War to peace, 1945-1947 -- Joy and sorrow, 1947-1952 -- Queen Mother, 1952-1955 -- Favourites, 1956-1960 -- The heart of the matter -- At home -- Queen voyager, 1961-1967 -- Under scrutiny, 1968-1981 -- Poetry and pain, 1981-1999 -- Centenarian, 1999-2002 -- Epilogue -- Appendix A. Family trees -- Appendix B. Queen Elizabeth's patronages.

The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince Charles--and the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon--the ninth of the Earl of Strathmore's ten children--was born on August 4, 1900, and, certainly, no one could have imagined that her long life (she died in 2002) would come to reflect a changing nation over the course of an entire century. Now, William Shawcross--given unrestricted access to the Queen Mother's personal papers, letters, and diaries--gives us a portrait of unprecedented vividness and detail. Here is the girl who helped convalescing soldiers during the First World War ... the young Duchess of York helping her reluctant husband assume the throne when his brother abdicated ... the Queen refusing to take refuge from the bombing of London, risking her own life to instill courage and hope in others who were living through the Blitz ... the dowager Queen--the last Edwardian, the charming survivor of a long-lost era--representing her nation at home and abroad ... the matriarch of the Royal Family and "the nation's best-loved grandmother." A revelatory royal biography that is, as well, a singular history of Britain in the twentieth century.