"The Queen Mother: The Official Biography" by William Shawcross (2009)

[iowabelle]

I just read that this bio is due to be released in the UK on September 18. I wonder if there will be any surprises. Of course, I'll be flipping forward to the parts on Wallis Simpson when I get mine.

The book's cover

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[Lumutqueen]

The Queen Mother's private recorded thoughts to be published for first time - Telegraph

An article regarding the book.

The Queen Mother: The Official Biography: Amazon.co.uk: William Shawcross: Books

Books: The Queen Mother: The Official Biography (Hardcover) by William Shawcross (Author)

You are able to pre-order it in the UK and America.

I will certainly be buying the book.

 

[iowabelle]

I do hope it's rather more critical than relying on the Queen Mother's interpretation of events. I am curious as to whether there's some information as to whether she had hoped to marry the Prince of Wales (and thus had some ill-feeling toward Wallis as a result) and why there were only two children born of the marriage (okay, maybe a tasteless area but I have an "inquiring mind").

 

[Maura724]

...why there were only two children born of the marriage (okay, maybe a tasteless area but I have an "inquiring mind").

The only thing I've ever read on that subject was that George VI was not all that fertile because he'd had the mumps as a young man, which apparently can interfere.

I think the book sounds very interesting - I can't wait to hear her personal account on things.

 

[auntie]

I do hope it's rather more critical than relying on the Queen Mother's interpretation of events. I am curious as to whether there's some information as to whether she had hoped to marry the Prince of Wales (and thus had some ill-feeling toward Wallis as a result) and why there were only two children born of the marriage (okay, maybe a tasteless area but I have an "inquiring mind").

Yes I tend to agree. It doesn't neccesarily mean it is the truth even if it is the Queen Mum's private recordings, it is her interpretation of the events which surrounded her life, her feelings and opinions

 

[iowabelle]

I also heard the mumps story and some story about fertility treatments.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Queen Mother was more Machiavellian than she is generally portrayed, but I don't think that's a bad thing. She lived through difficult times and was needed to bolster her husband. She probably would have made a great queen regnant if that had been her fate.

 

[BeatrixFan]

I'm suprised that the Queen gave interviews about her mother to Shawcross though I can understand the Prince of Wales doing so. Either way, I'm very excited about it - it's bound to be reliable and I'm sure fascinating.

 

[auntie]

I also heard the mumps story and some story about fertility treatments.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Queen Mother was more Machiavellian than she is generally portrayed, but I don't think that's a bad thing. She lived through difficult times and was needed to bolster her husband. She probably would have made a great queen regnant if that had been her fate.

What does "machiavellian" mean?

 

[Lumutqueen]

What does "machiavellian" mean?

Cunning. And I agree with Iowabelle. She probably was.

 

[iowabelle]

I think it would also be interesting to see what she had to say about the Charles and Diana debacle, and Camilla.

Cunning isn't necessarily a bad quality. I think she was a politician, a person who got things done without giving the impression of having done anything at all... cultivating the persona of the nation's granny gave her a lot of power behind the scenes. She was certainly the power in the family after her husband's death.

 

[Lumutqueen]

I think it would also be interesting to see what she had to say about the Charles and Diana debacle, and Camilla.

Cunning isn't necessarily a bad quality. I think she was a politician, a person who got things done without giving the impression of having done anything at all... cultivating the persona of the nation's granny gave her a lot of power behind the scenes. She was certainly the power in the family after her husband's death.

Yes I've always wondered how QEQM took the whole scandal. Yes cunning in a good way. She was definitely the head of the household after Bertie died.

 

[MARG]

I am curious as to whether there's some information as to whether she had hoped to marry the Prince of Wales (and thus had some ill-feeling toward Wallis as a result) . . . . .

Good grief! Wherever did such a notion come from? I would have thought that they were polar opposites.

 

[iowabelle]

I have read that before she caught the less desirable Duke of York, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was trying to catch the attention of the PoW. When that didn't work out, she settled but was resentful of the lady who was eventually successful... hence the enmity toward Wallis. IMO that doesn't sound likely but it would be interesting to see if the question was asked of the QM.

 

[EmpressRouge]

I have read that before she caught the less desirable Duke of York, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was trying to catch the attention of the PoW. When that didn't work out, she settled but was resentful of the lady who was eventually successful... hence the enmity toward Wallis. IMO that doesn't sound likely but it would be interesting to see if the question was asked of the QM.

I have read this many times. I have also read in more favorable portrayals that she turned down Bertie's earlier proposals because she did not want to live in a fishbowl lifestyle by marrying into the royal family. If that theory were true, then it is very contradictory the idea that she wanted to marry the heir to the throne. Again, I've heard both stories and I guess we'll never really know which one is true.

 

[MARG]

I don't know . . . if she was as Machiavelliian as some say I have no doubt she would have nailed that sucker loooooong before Wallis ship had sailed!

My money is on Bertie and the lifestyle they both obviously enjoyed right up to the abdication.

 

[iowabelle]

I don't believe it either (and I doubt she would admit it if it were true). The Yorks really didn't participate in the splashy 1920s and 1930s society set, although the young Duchess did receive a lot of attention since she was the first young woman to marry into that generation of princes. My guess is she enjoyed the attention and the privilege but wanted to enjoy family life and her own agenda, whatever that was. I'm sure a lot of her energy was devoted to bolstering up her duke.

 

[auntie]

I think Queen Ingrid of Denmark was also the woman behind the man. She was called Queen of Spin. I have often read that Elizabeth Bowes Lyon wanted to hook the POW, yet she would have had to deal with his weakness for woman, and probably to deal with Wallis as a mistress. She was much happier with having Bertie faithful to her.

 

[Madame Royale]

This is no biased view, but I think lady royals make better figureheads than those of gentleman. They exude a confident and reassuring presence, I believe. Nurturing, in a way.

I'll certainly read the book.

 

[Sereta]

I can't wait to read this book. I think it'll be very interesting. There's so much we don't know about the older Royals because they lived in a time when the press wasn't so intrusive and they didn't give interviews.

Madame Royale I agree with you. I think women tend to have stronger characters and stay out of trouble (for the most part).

 

[Elspeth]

I just read that this bio is due to be released in the UK on September 18. I wonder if there will be any surprises. Of course, I'll be flipping forward to the parts on Wallis Simpson when I get mine.

The book's cover​

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I don't think there's going to be anything about Wallis that isn't the usual party line. The Queen and Charles have read and approved the draft, and they wouldn't be thrilled about anything that doesn't show Mummie as the good guy in every respect.

Thanks for the reminder, though - I need to go and preorder it!

 

[Odette]

What other books did Mr Shawcross write before this one?

 

[love_cc]

Letter reveals Queen Mother's rift with Wallis Simpson
Letter reveals Queen Mother's rift with Wallis Simpson - Telegraph

Unseen pictures of Queen Mother unveiled
Unseen pictures of Queen Mother unveiled - Telegraph

Queen Mother Blitz letter: in full
Queen Mother Blitz letter: in full - Telegraph

The Queen Mother reluctant to join Royal Family
The Queen Mother reluctant to join Royal Family - Telegraph

Queen mother's biographer who walked a fine line
Queen mother's biographer who walked a fine line | Mail Online

 

[Skydragon]

"Waking up this weekend felt a bit like a time warp. Vera Lynn's back on the top of the Hit Parade with We'll Meet Again aged 92. Peter Mandelson is back on the airwaves talking silkily about those wicked Tory cuts – Labour cites "reductions" – at 55. A definite sense of deja entendu there.

Most remarkable of all, that doughty old Chamberlainite appeaser, the Queen Mum, has been dusted off as a war heroine to mark publication of a new biography by William Shawcross. It is proof from beyond the grave of her formidable talent for PR, which subsequently saved the family firm."

Even in death the Queen Mother is still polishing her image | UK news | guardian.co.uk

 

[Skydragon]

The anguished private thoughts of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother about the abdication crisis, which haunted her for the rest of her life, are disclosed for the first time in her official biography being published tomorrow

Queen Mother's anguished private thoughts on the abdication crisis disclosed for the first time - Telegraph

excerpts:
[Immediately prior to the Abdication] "The then Duchess of York wrote to Queen Mary that she prayed every day for the King to “see reason and not abandon his people”. She added: “I am sure that it would be a great shock to everybody and a horrible position for us naturally.”

In another letter to Queen Mary, she said: “I have great faith in Bertie – he sees very straight and if this terrible responsibility comes to him, he will face it bravely.”

Immediately after the abdication...she wrote a compassionate letter to the former King even though he had ostracised her and her husband. “We are all overcome with misery and can only pray that you will find happiness in your new life,“ she wrote.

[On her becoming Queen]...the former Duchess of York was more calm. She said: “The curious thing is that I am not afraid. Inadequate, but unfrightened.”

[In a letter to Queen Mary after visiting the East End a few hours after Buckingham Palace was hit by a bomb] “I really felt as if I was walking in a dead city, when we walked down a little empty street. All the houses evacuated and yet through the broken windows one saw all the poor little possessions, the photographs, beds, just as they were left. It does affect me seeing this terrible and senseless destruction. I think that really I mind it much more than being bombed myself.”
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[queenofthelight]

How Princess Margaret burned Diana's letters to Queen Mother | Mail Online (17/09/2009).

The Queen Mother: She loved owls, fairies and the miners. She hated oysters, LibDems and being kissed by a U.S. president. And she lived every day as if it were her last | Mail Online (17/09/2009).

 

[Skydragon]

The private thoughts of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, about the break-up of the Prince of Wales's marriage are disclosed for the first time in an authorised biography

Queen Mother's biography discloses thoughts about Prince Charles divorce - Telegraph

Queen Elizabeth "utterly abhorred" the way Diana, Princess of Wales decided to "wash dirty linen in public" by covertly giving the author Andrew Morton highly sensitive details about her marital turmoil, which she also discussed in a BBC Panorama programme. She was equally disapproving when the Prince of Wales decided to admit to being unfaithful during a TV interview with Jonathan Dimbleby.

"It's always a mistake to talk about your marriage," Queen Elizabeth said in a tape-recorded interview, which was kept under lock and key in a Royal archive until the biographer William Shawcross was given access to it after being chosen by the Queen to write an account of her mother's life

A NEW official biography of the Queen Mother was condemned as a whitewash yesterday after airbrushing out her views on Princess Diana’s death and other family crises.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/127868/Diana-axed-from-royal-history-

I think this criticism is unfair, Diana was such a short part of QEQMs life.

 

[principessa]

Daily Telegraph: "Queen Mother on 'abhorrent' Diana, Princess of Wales":

Queen Mother on 'abhorrent' Diana, Princess of Wales - Telegraph

 

[Iluvbertie]

I'm suprised that the Queen gave interviews about her mother to Shawcross though I can understand the Prince of Wales doing so. Either way, I'm very excited about it - it's bound to be reliable and I'm sure fascinating.

As this is an authorised biography it is far from reliable as their are vested interests in what can be included and what can't be.

A reliable biography of the Queen Mum won't come out for another 50 years or so when all those who knew her personally have passed and historians are truly able to write without the monarch of the day having final approval.

 

[MARG]

In a strange sort of way I think this is a reliable biography. That she chose to gloss or rather skate over the failed marriages of he three eldest grandchildren says it all.

She came from an era when writing letters was an art and she was a really good story teller which probably explains the burning of a lot of her private letters by Princess Margaret. It would never have occurred to her that they would be read by strangers or even worse, published!

It also explains her reference to

"It's aways a mistake to talk about your marriage,"

and her abhorrance of the way the Wales' chose to

"wash dirty linen in public"

Whilst she obviously consented to being interviewed, it is an absolute certainty that she would never ever have discussed what she considered private with anyone.

As to the lack of letters from Princess Diana, I have always wondered whatever happened to Diana's half of the the correspondence between them. That they have never been published in any expose seems to indicate that they really did share a private and intimate relationship. Basically none of our business.

 

[scooter]

The author also only mentioned Camilla a single time and did not discuss Charles' 30 year affair with her, so I think it's safe to say there is some whitewashing going on. Having lived through the whole Edward/Wallis drama, QEQM must have been concerned about a repeat, when it was clear that Camilla was not a passing fancy. One would think there would be some discussion of that situation. I pre-ordered the book on Amazon and am waiting by the mail box.