The definitive new biography of Her Majesty The Queen by one of Britain’s leading royal authorities.

‘This is a beautifully-crafted, deeply informed and rounded portrait of the gold standard monarch and the age to which she has given her name. Queen of Our Times has depth, feel and insight in abundance’

Peter Hennessy

‘A compendious new biography….closely observed…I relished the incidental details.’ The Times

‘Hardman’s exhaustive and endlessly enthusiastic biography paints a vivid picture of a phenomenal sovereign.’ The Daily Telegraph.

‘It’s all here: the scandals, the triumphs, the minutiae of court life, and the grandeur…As long as Queen Elizabeth reigns, consider this to be Her Majesty’s definitive biography.’ – Booklist (starred), USA

Robert Hardman’s new biography of Queen Elizabeth II, based on a wealth of exclusive new material, brings us the full story of one of our greatest and best-loved monarchs as she celebrates her Platinum Jubilee.

With original insights from family, friends and staff, new interviews with world leaders plus unseen photographs and papers, including diaries and letters from the Royal Archives, Robert Hardman tells the full life story of the most famous woman in the world.  He brings his long experience and expertise to this fresh, richly entertaining and compelling portrait of a record-breaking monarch who remains as intriguing today as the morning she came to the Throne aged twenty-five.  Like her father and grandfather before her, Elizabeth II was not born to be monarch. Yet she has led her people through more social change than any British sovereign during a life spanning abdication, war, romance, danger, tragedy and triumph.

At every stage of this extraordinary story, Hardman brings fresh insights and perspectives: from hidden wartime secrets to the true inside story of historic royal reforms; untold highs and lows of family life; striking new insights into the Queen’s relations with her ministers and fellow world leaders; her strategy when confronted with family and constitutional crises from the early years right up to the dramas of the present day.

Robert Hardman is a renowned writer and broadcaster, specializing in monarchy and history. Over three decades, he has interviewed global figures from the Duke of Edinburgh to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge; from the Emperor of Japan to the US president, and every Prime Minister since John Major. His most recent book, Queen of the World, was a study of the monarch’s international role. He has commentated for the BBC at all the major royal occasions of recent years while writing and producing television documentaries from George III – The Genius of the Mad King to The Queen’s Castle and, most recently, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers. Hardman is an award-winning journalist for the Daily Mail and lives with his family in London.

MORE PRAISE FOR QUEEN OF OUR TIMES

‘The essential authoritative biography of the Queen that everyone needs to read – packed with new research, gripping details and telling anecdotes on every page; equally  masterful on matters high and low, power and family.  Hardman not only explains her; he defines her and her epoch.’  Simon Sebag Montefiore

‘Robert Hardman has written a truly exceptional biography of an equally exceptional monarch, rich in new material, wit and original thought. With intimate and unrivalled access to those who really know the story, Queen of Our Times not only gives us the real Elizabeth II, but it also reminds us, often movingly, that we are living through one of history’s greatest reigns.’

Andrew Roberts