THE longest-reigning British monarch by far, Queen Elizabeth II had already lent her name to an era in the minds of broadcasters and writers long before she died at the age of 96. It was hard to think of life without her. Her life was inseparably bound up with the times that most of us remember.
So, a new biography, trying to assess the late Queen’s reign overall, is very welcome, especially one written by a professional historian at the height of his game. Commissioned originally for The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, David Cannadine’s entry on Elizabeth now appears separately in a much more accessible format.
And what a pleasurable and informative read it is. Concise it may be, but it is packed with detail. Cannadine’s style is plain, unadorned, and efficient in its marshalling of evidence. Due weight is given to every period of Elizabeth’s life and reign. Somehow, Cannadine manages to balance perfectly the story of her life and loves (family, friends, dogs, horses) with the broader political, social, and even economic context in which her life and reign unfolded.
There is none of the sensationalism depressingly common in many royal biographies. Nor is there hagiography; aware of the criticisms sometimes made of the late Queen’s handling of family matters, Cannadine is judicious in his discussion of them. Proper weight is given to her faith, and to her sense of duty and responsibility, as motivation.
Referring Walter Bagehot’s idea of constitutional monarchy as there to “warn, to encourage, and to be consulted”, Cannadine admits that the Queen was not faultless. But, on the central functions of the monarchy today, she was an outstanding success: “She was the keeper of many secrets . . . and she never leaked.” She endured through the painful, even torrid, royal scandals of the 1980s and ’90s to reach what Cannadine calls her “apotheosis” in her last two decades.
Reading almost like a survey of our own times, this is an admirable introduction to the life and reign of the late Queen.
The Revd Dr Jeremy Morris is a former Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
Queen Elizabeth II: A concise biography of an exceptional sovereign
David Cannadine
OUP £12.99
(978-0-19-890230-0)
Church Times Bookshop £11.69
