A Voyage Around the Queen

Virginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annexe; Haile Selassie gave her a gold tiara; Dirk Bogarde watched Death in Venice with her; Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy.   Queen Elizabeth II was famous for longer than anyone who has ever lived. When people spoke of her, they spoke of themselves. To the optimist, she seemed an optimist; to the pessimist, a pessimist; to the awestruck, charismatic; and to the cynical, humdrum. Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation.   Combining biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire, the bestselling author of Ma'am Darling and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this most public yet private of sovereigns.   'An enthralling reverie on memory, identity, coincidence and meaning' RORY STEWART 'Exquisitely funny and fascinating. This book is, dare I say, majestic' MARINA HYDE