Elizabeth, The Queen Mother

An authoritative and affectionate biography of the Queen Mother by a highly respected Royal biographer.

richly textured and judicious, and I doubt it will ever be bettered

Gripping gloriously gossipy beautifully detailed, fair but never fawning - arguably the best royal biography of recent years (there has, of course, been competition...)

Harold Nicolson called her 'one of the most amazing Queens since Cleopatra', while Cecil 
Beaton called her 'a marshmallow made on a welding machine'. Stephen Tennant said: 'She looked everything that she was not: gentle, gullible, tenderness mingled with dispassionate serenity, cool, well-bred, remote. Behind this veil she schemed and vacillated, hard as nails.' Who was she? 
 
The Queen Mother's story has not yet been properly told. This was partly due to her long life, and the difficulty that always exists when a biography of a living person is attempted, partly because she was a queen - and the real person gets hidden behind the perceived image - and partly because she is hard to pin down. 
 
From her privileged aristocratic childhood, to the Abdication and the problems with Diana - this book questions how she faced her challenges and crises, assesses her role, how powerful she was, and how she coped. This is a candid, personal portrait of one of Britain's most loved national treasures. 
 
Hugo Vickers, an acknowledged expert on the House of Windsor, has spent seventeen years researching this book, and observed the Queen Mother in public and private over a period of forty years.

Hugo Vickers' books include Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece; Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough; Cecil Beaton; Vivien Leigh; Loving Garbo; Royal Orders; The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; and The Kiss, which won the 1996 Stern Silver Pen for Non-fiction.

Harold Nicolson called her 'the greatest Queen since Cleopatra', while Cecil Beaton called her 'a marshmallow made on a welding machine'. Stephen Tennant said: 'She looked everything that she was not: gentle, gullible, tenderness mingled with dispassionate serenity, cool, well-bred, remote. Behind this veil she schemed and vacillated, hard as nails.' Who was she? 
The Queen Mother's story has not yet been properly told. This was partly due to her long life, and the difficulty that always exists when a biography of a living person is attempted, partly because she was a queen - and the real person gets hidden behind the perceived image - and partly because she is hard to pin down. 
From her privileged aristocratic childhood, to the abdication and the problems with Diana - this book questions how she faced her challenges and crises, assess her role, how powerful she was, and how she coped. This is a candid, personal portrait of one of Britain's most loved national treasures. 
Hugo Vickers, an acknowledged expert on the House of Windsor, has spent seventeen years researching this book, and observed the Queen Mother in public and private over a period of forty years.

Elizabeth, the Queen Mother

A bulging plum pudding of insider snippets in the Cecil Beaton tradition, with camp and catty asides laced with worldly wisdom... Vickers has done serious research in some important areas

This is the first full-length biography - and who better to write it than Hugo Vickers... He is at home in the courtier's world and the circles which the Queen Mother inhabited... A very considerable achievement

A major new biography... Filled with telling anecdotes, it paints an affectionate yet revealing portrait

There is a small handful of British royal biographies which have acquired classic status... To this number must certainly be added Hugo Vickers's life of Elizabeth the Queen Mother. It is a truly magnificent book... Written with true authority. Hugo Vickers knows his subject through and through... A monumental record of why we all found the Queen Mother such a loveable and inspiring person, and why her pluck and her humour appealed to so wide a public

Witty and respectful … An overall portrait which may well be as close as anyone will ever get to the truth

Masterly ... Hugo Vickers's life long immersion in the history and dramatis personae of the Royal Family has certainly paid off ... The portrait of the Queen Mother that he gives us here is richly textured and judicious and I doubt will ever be bettered

Harold Nicolson called her 'the greatest Queen since Cleopatra', while Cecil Beaton called her 'a marshmallow made on a welding machine'. Stephen Tennant said: 'She looked everything that she was not: gentle, gullible, tenderness mingled with dispassionate serenity, cool, well-bred, remote. Behind this veil she schemed and vacillated, hard as nails.' Who was she? 
 
The Queen Mother's story has not yet been properly told. This was partly due to her long life, and the difficulty that always exists when a biography of a living person is attempted, partly because she was a queen - and the real person gets hidden behind the perceived image - and partly because she is hard to pin down. 
 
From her privileged aristocratic childhood, to the Abdication and the problems with Diana - this book questions how she faced her challenges and crises, assesses her role, how powerful she was, and how she coped. This is a candid, personal portrait of one of Britain's most loved national treasures. 
 
Hugo Vickers, an acknowledged expert on the House of Windsor, has spent seventeen years researching this book, and observed the Queen Mother in public and private over a period of forty years.

The Story of Greta Garbo,Cecil Beaton and Mercedes de Acosta

Loving Garbo

Beautifully illustrated, this brilliant and compelling new biography tells the extraordinary story of Greta Grabo and two of her greatest loves - Cecil Beaton and Mercedes de Acosta.

Hugely ambitious... Vickers's triumph has been to weave the lives of three bisexual, egotistical monsters into an utterly enthralling narrative.

Hugo Vickers is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and an acknowledged expert on the Royal Family, appearing regularly on television. He has written biographies of the Queen Mother, Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece; Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough (The Sphinx), Cecil Beaton, Vivien Leigh and others. He explored the Duchess of Windsor’s house when writing The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (1995). He collaborated with HRH The Duke of Kent on A Royal Life. His book The Kiss won the 1996 Stern Silver Pen for non-fiction. Hugo Vickers lives between London and Wiltshire and has two sons and a daughter.

Greta Garbo's enduring legend derives from her incandescent performances as a woman in love in such classics as Camille, Queen Christina and Grand Hotel. For half a century her apparently reclusive existence enhanced her reputation as a remote and enigmatic screen goddess. 
 
Now, in this beautifully illustrated book, Hugo Vickers tells the remarkable story of Greta Garbo and of the two love affairs that dominated her life: with Cecil Beaton and the notorious Mercedes de Acosta. It is a highly revealing portait of an exotic world - at its centre, an enthrallign and demanding star who gave little in return.

Hugo Vickers

With a lifetime's interest in the subject, Vickers knows everything there is to know about the Windsors... hugely entertaining

A page turner... Vickers' compelling account makes one feel that Wallis did the Queen a favour

A devastating account of the last years of the Duchess of Windsor. Behind Closed Doors is filled with many revelations

Fascinating … A beautifully written account of one of the 20th century’s most remarkable lives

The most knowledgeable royal biographer on the planet

Hugo Vickers always brings history to life... the reader feels like they are looking through the peephole and listening through the door

The tragic true story behind the forthcoming film My Duchess starring Joan Collins and Isabella Rossellini 
 
'Hugely entertaining' - Telegraph 
'A page turner' - Times Literary Supplement 
'Definitively brilliant' - Evening Standard 
 
Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, died in Paris on 24 April 1986, just weeks short of her ninetieth birthday. 
 
Many assumed she had died years earlier, having vanished from public life for over a decade. Yet her death made headlines around the world, prompting a fresh retelling of Edward VIII’s abdication and reigniting the long-smouldering feud between the exiled Windsors and the British Royal Family. 
 
Hugo Vickers has followed the story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor since he was a young man. In this book, drawing on previously unpublished papers and personal testimony, he offers a striking new perspective on one of the twentieth century’s most fascinating and ill-fated couples. 
 
Behind Closed Doors is part detective story, part gripping royal history. With meticulous research and a deep understanding of his subjects, Vickers uncovers a drama whose power has only grown with time. 
 
'The most knowledgeable royal biographer on the planet' 
Financial Times 
 
'Behind Closed Doors is filled with revelations' 
Isabella Rossellini 
 
‘Hugo Vickers always brings history to life... the reader feels like they are looking through the peephole and listening through the door’ 
Joan Collins 
 
‘Fascinating … A beautifully written account of one of the 20th century’s most remarkable lives’ 
The Lady 
 
Cover may vary

Hugo Vickers

Praise for Behind Closed Doors

With a lifetime's interest in the subject, Vickers knows everything there is to know about the Windsors... hugely entertaining

A page turner... Vickers' compelling account makes one feel that Wallis did the Queen a favour

A definitively brilliant history

With a lifetime's interest in the subject, Vickers knows everything there is to know about the Windsors... hugely entertaining

A page turner... Vickers' compelling account makes one feel that Wallis did the Queen a favour

A definitively brilliant history

With a lifetime's interest in the subject, Vickers knows everything there is to know about the Windsors... hugely entertaining

A page turner... Vickers' compelling account makes one feel that Wallis did the Queen a favour

A definitively brilliant history

Books by Hugo Vickers

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