Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II: A Photographic Portrait just came out in the UK and I pre-ordered it, because that's what obsessed people royal watchers do. These are official, semi-official portraits and a handful of more casual pictures, including some taken by Prince Andrew. The photographs (by great names such as Sir Cecil Beaton, Marcus Adams and also Canadian pop star Bryan Adams) follow Queen Elizabeth from infancy up until last year. They are interesting not just for the magnificent jewels and clothes or the historic moments, but also for the way they work as a collection to reveal the flesh-and-blood side of someone we often see as a cartoon version (or the Spitting Image puppet) of herself.

The text part of the book, written by Philip Ziegler, is a pretty decent abridged biography of the Queen, suitable even for those who have limited interest in the subject (i.e. my husband). The text is super sympathetic to its subject to the point of trying to release Queen Elizabeth from any responsibility to the more questionable decisions from her past, such as pushing Princess Margaret to end her relationship with Peter Townsend. Still, it's interesting, well-written and serves as a good accompaniment to the truly wonderful photos.

Queen Elizabeth II: A Photographic Portrait by Philip Ziegler (£24.50 on amazon.co.uk) can be ordered online directly from the UK. even with shipping and exchange fees it's significantly cheaper than any other option.

Photo of (then) Princess Elizabeth and baby Prince Charles:  Britanica.com

I was highly amused to discover a couple of weeks ago that quite a few of you share my odd fascination with monarchy in general and the British royal family in particular. Of course, those of you in the UK probably get to see more than enough of them on the news and in the papers, but for the rest of us, here's a list of links and sites where we can indulge in this guilty pleasure:

The official website of the British Monarchy
The official Twitter account (sadly, Prince William doesn't tweet by himself)
The official Flickr account- lots and lots of photos, old and new (by the way, if someone at Clarence House or Buckingham Palace is reading, the link to Flickr from the official website is broken.
Royal news from the Telegraph
A general royal news aggregator and data base- Royal families from around the world (I'm partial to the Norwegians)

Do you have a favorite royal? Whom would you like to meet? Whom would you like to smack? What would you wear?


Photo of the Queen taking a photograph of the Duke of Edinburgh during their visit to Tuvalu in 1982 from the official Flickr account.