Sally Bedell Smith -- Elizabeth the Queen -- Bal Harbour Shops

Start: Jan 19 2012 7:30 pm

Drawing on numerous interviews and never-before-revealed documents, acclaimed biographer Sally Bedell Smith pulls back the curtain to show in intimate detail the public and private lives of Queen Elizabeth II. Compulsively readable and scrupulously researched, Elizabeth the Queen (Random House, $30) is a close-up view of a woman we’ve known only from a distance, illuminating the lively personality, sense of humor, and canny intelligence with which she meets the most demanding work and family obligations. We discover the young girl who suddenly becomes "heiress presumptive" when her uncle abdicates the throne. Smith brings us inside the palace doors and into the Queen’s daily routines—the "red boxes" of documents she reviews each day, the weekly meetings she has had with twelve prime ministers, her physically demanding tours abroad, and the constant scrutiny of the press—as well as her personal relationships. It is a fascinating window into life at the center of the last great monarchy.