The Queen and Us: The second Elizabethan age

The Queen and Us: The second Elizabethan age

by NigelNicolson (Author)

Synopsis

At the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 Nigel Nicolson was in his mid-thirties and already a successful publisher, a left-leaning Conservative MP (elected to Parliament the day King George VI died) and an author. He moved close to royal circles yet was not part of the Court. He has kept a daily diary throughout these years and has observed how a nation that still boasted an empire gradually down-sized to a sovereign state that is now part of the European community. In 1953 the Queen ruled over a country still recovering from the depradations of world war II. The royal family kept its private life private. How it has all changed since then! Why has it changed? asks Nicolson. Is it a change for the good? Should we continue to have a royal family? Then there are the social changes, the technological innovations. Nicolson comments on them, writing with a wry sense of humour and a keen sense of history.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 149
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: W&N
Published: 08 May 2003

ISBN 10: 0297829408
ISBN 13: 9780297829409
Book Overview: Author is high-profile weekly columnist in Sunday Telegraph As former MP, leading publisher and author he has been close to the events he describes

Media Reviews
I gave THE QUEEN AND US a press date of 29 May, to tie in with the 50th anniversary of the Queen's coronation, on 2nd June. Nigel Nicolson will be on LOOSE ENDS (BBC Radio 4) on Saturday 28th June (with William Hootkins and Roy Hudd). Reviews planned so far include: SUNDAY TIMES, VOGUE, LITERARY REVIEW, VETERAN MAGAZINE and SAGA magazine. There has also been interest from the DAILYMAIL. '...a unique quality of authenticity...The book has perfect pitch all through and does not need to rely on court gossip or revelations by royal servants for one to know what is going on, since the author himself is part of what is going on, and has been so all his life...author and subject are well matched.'Peregrine Worsthorne, THE SPECTATOR 'Nicolson deftly draws on his ownpersonal encounters with the Royal Family...His elegant essay on the changing nature of the monarchy is full of...thought-provoking asides...[A] stimulating study.'Hugh Massingberd, TELEGRAPH '...elegant and engaging...a handy distillation and an essay about a relationship with royalty which is as persistent as it is, on occasion, manifestly absurd.'Ben Pimlott, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'It is rare for hagiographies of the royal family to be written by authors possessed of genuine critical faculties...Nigel Nicolson's book is one. His sharp intelligence allows this slim volume to rise about the fawning, mawkish sentimentality of the Gawd Bless 'er. Ain't She Wonderful? tradition...Thisshort book positively crackles with anecdote...[it is] eloquent and entertaining...and in a style that sparkles as radiantly as a debutante's tiara.'Tim Luckhurst, THE HERALD (Glasgow) 'As an overall picture of the Queen in her constitutional and family circumstances, it is excellent...Weidenfeld & Nicolson...are to be congratulated in publishing such a restrained but authoritative work on the Queen's anniversary.'Paul Minet, ROYALTY DIGEST There has als
Author Bio
Nigel Nicolson has been writing and publishing for more than fifty years. He edited the letters of Harold Nicolson (his father), wrote an account of the unusual marriage of his parents (Portrait of a Marriage). He was a Tory MP for Bournemouth from 1952 (entering Parliament on the day of the death of King George VI) until September 1959. He co-founded the publishing house of Weidenfeld & Nicolson.