A Voyage Around the Queen

As chroniclers of celebrity lives go, Craig Brown may not be the most authoritative or academic, but his satirical skill and eye for a story make him almost certainly the most entertaining. After his hilarious and compelling books on the Beatles and Princess Margaret, it seems only natural that he would turn to the most famous person of the last 100 years as his next subject.

Synopsis

From one of the funniest writers of our time, the award winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of One Two Three Four and Ma'am Darling turns his attention to Queen Elizabeth II in an unforgettable and fascinating biography.

She was the most famous person on earth and first appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of three. Nowadays, only those over the age of 100 would have any chance of recalling a time when she was not a fixture of British identity.

Her countenance has been reproduced – in photographs, on stamps, on the notes and coins of thirty different currencies – more than any since Jesus. Over the course of her ninety-six years, she was likely introduced to a greater number of different people than anyone who has ever lived. Many can remember what they said to her, but not a word of what she said to them.

Until now the curious tactic employed by her biographers has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown overturns this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to one of the most guarded women who ever lived, examining The Queen in her time through a succession of interlocking prisms, with hilarious wit and sharp social commentary.

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• ISBN: 9780008557492
• Number of pages: 672
• Weight: 1180g
• Dimensions: 240 x 159 x 48 mm