I am by no means a royalist but I appreciate that they do make money as well as spend it! The number of tourists coming to the UK to visit Buckingham palace and other Royal residences has grown exponentially in the past few years and is set to grow even more with the addition of Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex. I must admit I did watch the Royal wedding and was surprised to see a number of black performers including the cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the Kingdom Choir led by Karen Gibson, and that unforgettable sermon from Bishop Michael Curry. All of these performances were electrifying and beautiful, in my opinion. It it is long overdue that someone like Markle has finally made their way inside the historically white modern British monarchy. Very few people actually realise that this is not the first time a person of different ethnic origins has married into the British Royal Family, that distinction actually goes way back to the 18th century to Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Victoria's grandmother. Charlotte was the wife of King George III, who was Queen from 1761 until her death in 1818, and was of mixed race. Apparently she was "directly descended from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a black branch of the Portuguese Royal House." I picked this up mainly because I love history and being British, I feel I should know more about my country. It comes across as well-researched and was an easy and enjoyable canter through Queen Elizabeth II journey including meeting and falling in love with Prince Phillip of Greece as well as other important happenings from the early part of her life. All in all, this is a thorough and detailed account of Queen Elizabeth's formative years and what set her on the road to becoming Queen. Interesting and packed with meticulous research, you could do worse than investing some time reading this. Dismore has done an exquisite job! Many thanks to Thistle Publishing for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I enjoyed reading this account of the life of Queen Elizabeth II, I found this to be a very informative read.