22/09/2022

Queen of Our Times by Robert Hardman

I bought Queen of Our Times by Robert Hardman – The Life of Queen Elizabeth II – when I saw that Boris Johnson gave a copy of it as a gift to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a trip to Kyiv. Zelenskyy was so interested in the book that couldn’t help himself and open it for a quick look, which was so lovely to see. So, I immediately bought it.
I wanted to read the book, but with its considerable size of 700 pages, I preferred reading others before this one. After the Queen’s death I knew I wanted to read this book and I took it with me to London. I waited 12 hours for the lying in state, I also laid flowers at the floral tribute (the top right picture is the crowd going to see the floral tributes), and I also went to see the funeral procession. It was emotional, feelings shared by many of the people in the queue, many of them wearing black, many with tears in their eyes after seeing Her Majesty’s coffin.

The book is a must read for anyone interested in the monarchy and not only. It draws on many primary sources and that makes it incredibly important. The book covers what happened during WWII with her parent’s involvement in the war, with their doubts about taking the children somewhere where it would have been safer. The author puts these struggles in context, as other royal families, from Europe, did send their children to the Americas for safety. Their lives were in constant danger as they could have been killed many times during the war. It was fascinating to read and heartbreaking at the same time. This is just the beginning and the book is lovely written, a page turner.

I highly recommend it for two reasons, firstly because it is a well researched and nicely written book, the second reason is that it would make for a nice tribute to the Queen to read about her life. Even more, the amount of primary sources included, such as King George VI’s personal dairy, makes this book equally important for anyone who studies this period.