Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage

by Gyles Brandreth (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.24

  This is the first biography of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh - both royal, both great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria, but, in temperament and upbringing, two very different people. The Queen's childhood was loving and secure, the Duke's was turbulent: his grandfather assassinated, his father arrested, his family exiled, his parents separated when he was only ten. Elizabeth and Philip met as cousins in the 1930s. They married in 1947, aged twenty-one and twenty-six. A little more than four years later, they were Queen and Consort. For almost sixty years theirs have been among the most famous faces in the world - yet the personalities behind the image remain elusive and the nature of their marriage is an enigma. Philip & Elizabeth tells the extraordinary story of these two contrasting lives, assesses their achievement, together and apart, and explores the nature of their relationships, with one another and with their children. Here is a unique royal biography: the author has met all the principal players in the story; he quotes no anonymous sources; he has had privileged access to the Queen; he has known the Duke of Edinburgh for over twenty-five years and has interviewed him. This is a powerful and revealing portrait of a remarkable royal partnership, told with authority and unique insight, and illustrated with Prince Philip's family photographs and pictures from the Queen's royal collection.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $3.24

  This is the story of two unusual people - both intelligent, both determined, but otherwise with very different natures - both royal from birth, but with wildly different upbringings - who have led quite extraordinary lives. It will be the story of those lives, of their relationship, of their attitude to one another, to their children, to the curios lot fate has thrown their way. It will be part history - part psychology - part drama and romance. Gyles Brandreth has spent many hours with Prince Philip - breakfast, lunch, dinner, trains, planes, cars - and talked to him, at length, on the record and off, in his study at Buckingham Palace. For his eightieth birthday celebrations at the Royal Albert Hall, he worked with him on his 'official biography', published privately, so that he knows precisely how he sees his story. He has talked with Philip about his role, his childhood, his parents, his sisters, his relationship with The Queen and his children and his children-in-law. He has also recently spent a lot of time with the Queen and Prince Philip together, and can write about them and the way they are together with unique familiarity.