This book is a photographic portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, from her first official photograph as a baby in 1926 to her Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Each of the book’s chapters begins with a text by bestselling historian and biographer Philip Ziegler, covering the key royal and historical events of the period, with some contextual photographs, followed by a sequence of plates in chronological order. With over 200 images of the Queen by internationally distinguished photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Lord Snowdon and Rankin, the Queen is captured in a variety of poses, from formal photographs as a working monarch, to intimate portraits relaxing with her family at Balmoral and Windsor. All the images have been officially approved by the Palace, making this the only illustrated book that anyone will ever need on Queen Elizabeth II.

If Ethelred was notoriously ‘Unready’ and Alfred ‘Great’, King George VI should bear the designation of ‘George the Dutiful’. Throughout his life he dedicated himself to the pursuit of what he thought he ought to be doing rather than what he wanted to do. Inarticulate and loathing any sort of public appearances, he accepted that it was his destiny to figure regularly and conspicuously in the public eye, gritted his teeth, largely conquered his crippling stammer and got on with it. He was not born to be king, but he made an admirable one, and was the figurehead of the nation at the time of its greatest trial, during the Second World War. This is a sparklingly brilliant and enjoyable book about him.