Elizabeth: an intimate portrait. Gyles Brandreth. 2022.

Elizabeth II was the longest-reigning sovereign in British history.

Driven by duty, sustained by faith, made happy by her dogs and her horses, she was universally respected and admired. Her funeral was a global event, her passing mourned by millions.

On our stamps and currency and television screens, we knew her face: over ninety-six years she became the most photographed woman in the world. But what was she really like? Who was she? And what was it that made her so special?

From her childhood in the 1920s to the era of Harry and Meghan in the 2020s, from her war years at Windsor Castle to her death at Balmoral, this is both a record of a tumultuous century of royal history and a truly intimate portrait of a remarkable woman.