The Queen Mother

In The Untold Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Lady Colin Campbell tells the griping true story of Elizabeth's life. She reveals the truth behind: the mystery of her birth; her intra-family relationships; how she set about getting married; her relationship with her eldest brother-in-law prior to her marriage and afterwards, when he was Prince of Wales, Edward VIII, and Duke of Windsor; how she came to marry his younger brother Bertie; how the other members of the Royal Family viewed Elizabeth at various stages in her life and theirs; the real state of her marriage; the circumstances surrounding the birth of her two children and why she never had any more; the part she played behind-the-scenes in the abdication crisis; her antipathy towards Wallis Simpson and what their relationship was; Lord Beaverbrook's interpretation of events and the crucial part he played during the abdication and afterwards; Elizabeth's relationship with him; whether she had flirtations and romances during her marriage; Bertie's friendships with other women; Elizabeth's popularity during the Second World War and the contribution she made to the welfare of the nation during it; her role as wife and mother during and after it, her opposition to Prince Philip and her attempts to induce Lilibet to marry a peer's son; Bertie's opposition and the reason why; Bertie's illness and death; her adjustment to relatively young widowhood - the trouble she gave and the trouble she saved; her difficult relationship with Princess Margaret and the opinions of Margaret and some of her close friends and lovers of Elizabeth's true character; her role as a grandmother and how she treated her varying grandchildren; her incredibly luxurious and fun-filled lifestyle during the last forty years of her life; whether her drinking and gambling were really the problems they were rumoured to be; her relations with Diana and other in-laws especially when their marriages were collapsing; her death and its aftermath.