The Queen Mother

by Elizabeth Longford

Book by Longford, Elizabeth Harman Pakenham, Countess of

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1981

About the author

Elizabeth (Harman) Pakenham, Countess of Longford, CBE was born on 30 August 1906. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Bishop Harman. She married Sir Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, KG, PC, son of Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford and Lady Mary Julia Child-Villiers, on 3 November 1931. She died on 23 October 2002.
Her married name became Pakenham.

The Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography was established in 2003 in memory of Elizabeth Longford (1906-2002), the British author, biographer and historian. The £5,000 prize is awarded annually for a historical biography published in the preceding year. The Elizabeth Longford Prize is sponsored by Flora Fraser and Peter Soros and administered by the Society of Authors.

Reviews

[Cathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok until I hit the final 1/3, then it turned into a fawning gush to the Queen Mum. ::rolls eyes emoji::

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. I didn't love it. It's a biography of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. She was married to Albert, who became King George. When he died, her daughter became Queen Elizabeth II. This biography is a little shallow. It covers her birth, her marriage, and her life as the Queen. But it doesn't go in depth about her emotions.

There is a lot of photographs which I did like and there was a lot of history. There was a lot of theory about the feelings and emotions that the family was having during, but nothing concrete. At the time the book was written, the author didn't have access to a lot of her personal correspondence. But it was good. I learned a lot and enjoyed it.