The Queen Mother: The Official Biography Book

At 943 pages, this may be more than anyone who isn't a "royalty buff" may ever want to know about Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. I'm fairly exhausted after reading the book--primarily because the sucker is really, really heavy. I've been reading this book for what seems like weeks, 50 and 100 pages at a time, and still I'm left feeling unsatisfied. It's an official biography, which apparently means that the author is a total admirer of the Queen Mother and the current Queen so that scandals are swept under the rug along with any information that casts the main character in an unflattering light. I was interested in the information about Prince Albert wooing Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon and in the fact that she repeatedly turned down his marriage proposals. Why she then changed her mind and accepted is really not made clear. Also I was longing to get to the parts of the book featuring the Queen Mother's relationships with and feelings about Wallis Warfield Simpson and Princess Diana. Sadly, that was glossed over for the most part. In the end, this is a fluff piece--a really, really long fluff piece. Yet I came away admiring the woman that Elizabeth was, missing warts and all.