Few people know the truth about Elizabeth and her family. But Sarah Bradford has spent most of the last ten years penetrating the Palace facade, uncovering unpublished archives and documents and enjoying unprecedented access to people close to the family. As the author of the acclaimed biography of the Queen's father, George VI, she enjoys an unrivalled position from which to distinguish truth and rumour and to track Elizabeth the woman from her birth to the present day. She has interviewed courtiers, friends, politicians and employees, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, to build up a portrait of Elizabeth as both executive and mother. Sarah Bradford has come up with extensive new confidential material, throwing light on intimate family relationships and their effect on crises in the family's history, like the Princess Margaret-Peter Townsend affair and the break-up of the Wales's marriage.Elizabeth is one of the world's most powerful women and after almost half a century on the British throne, its most experienced ruler. She has outlasted nine British Prime Ministers, nine US Presidents, four Popes and countless other Heads of State. She is the most famous woman in the world and yet at the same time less is known about her than any other public figure. This book is not only a great family saga spanning the twentieth century but an in-depth portrait of a very private woman in her public and family life. It answers the questions everyone wants to ask. What is she really like? How has she coped with the pressures of being an executive woman and the mother of four children? How rich is she? How does the Palace really operate? Three of her children's marriages have broken down and there have been rumours of turbulence in her own marriage. Has she failed in her private life while succeeding in her public life and will the recent family stresses affect the future of the Windsor dynasty? Read Less