My favourite book of the season…a brief and highly selective biography of the QM…concentrating on good stories at the expense of all the guff …along the way we learn some fascinating facts…You know you want this book, and I know you want it, and if you’re very good Father Christmas might bring it for you’ The Spectator I've read many books about the Windsors over the decades, but never a biography solely covering Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, known in her unmarried beginnings as Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. When I drank in the cover of this book and its title, I surmised I was getting truly a new spin on the topic in the form of humorous anecdotes about The Queen Mother. But when I first delved into the book my expectations were upended, for this was an actual biography...and a very good one! So at first I was a little disappointed because I was waiting for the punchlines that weren't coming. However, once I switched gears and realized what a wonderful biography I was reading about this historic royal icon, I ploughed through it with delight! The whimsical stories started coming once The Queen Mother was a widow, freed from the responsibilities and limitations her former role of Queen Consort demanded. Russell’s “skimming-stone biography” has managed to capture both – the laughter and the wisdom. I raise a glass to him.

I have long admired this wonderful woman and wish I could have met her before she passed away. Along with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, the world has lost two beautiful icons. May God rest their souls. Bertie, later George VI, would need her strength and support. She helped him find a way to conquer his stammer. She stood steadfastly by him through his early days as King and throughout WWII. She became the well loved face with which people could connect. And she was there when her daughter became Elizabeth II. She could be feisty and demanding. She could hold a grudge with the best cat, as both The Duke and Duchess of Windsor would learn. She was also sensitive to her own shortcomings but she never let it stand in her way. Her loyalty was unassailable. A rather entertaining, eye opening book about English royalty, The Queen Mother lived an extraordinarily long life. Placed in the role of Queen due to the abdication of her husband’s brother, her life changed dramatically. She and Winston Churchill are given honors for keeping the spirit of England encouraged during the years of the blitz of London. It is said of her that she could put anyone at ease, rich or poor. After her husband’s death, she continued to support the reigning Queen, Elizabeth II, faithfully until her death at age 101. I thought from the somewhat comical cover, that the book might be less substantial and focus more on the quips and (perhaps) public gaffs that the Queen Mother was known for. Instead, the book was a very in-depth look at the life of the woman who was born while Queen Victoria was still on the throne and died a century later. Not only are well-known sources quoted, but also people who knew or met the Queen Mother and also private letters and diaries were consulted to form a more rounded picture of the QEII's mum -- warts and all.

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Russell wasted a great opportunity to compare Diana and the QM’s similarities. They both had a high EQ and could put people at ease. Perhaps a vignette could have features their mutual dislike despite their mutual similarities. Diana Mitford Mosley and the QM did NOT get along, not only because of their politics but because Diana was great friends with Wallis, "that woman". When told that Lady Mountbatten was being buried at sea, the Queen Mother replied cheerfully. ‘Dear old Edwina, she always did like to make a splash!’

Like all large families, Royals too have family problems and complications. It appears she attempted to be the peacemaker for her grands. Reference is made to her habit of drinking a little too frequently and loving to shop. It doesn’t sound like an enjoyable life to me, but Elizabeth the Queen Mother appeared to have a grand life. However, after the war and the death of her husband she continued her years of service to the crown and her daughter, the Queen. My favorite parts were hearing about her personality. She smiled, teased and enjoyed a smart joke with the people around her regardless of their status. It seems that until the very end she took care of those around her and kept on smiling through all the tough times. Not unlike Diana, when she first married Bertie, Elizabeth was derided for being too popular and too adored by the public. She was approachable with the ability to talk to and charm whomever she met. I was quite amazed by the similarities although I suspect by the time Diana was at her zenith, the Queen Mum might have had some different views. She was the breath of fresh air in the stodgy world of Royalty after WWI. She and her husband were well matched and in love. It was, by all accounts, a happy marriage. Russell sets the tone at the start, laughing gently at the stories surrounding Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon’s birth at St Paul’s Walden Bury on August 4 1900. The fact that Elizabeth’s father, Lord Strathmore, couldn’t be bothered to register her birth until six weeks after the event led to the fabulously bonkers suggestion that she was in fact a changeling, the offspring of a French cook or a Welsh servant who was smuggled into Lady Strathmore’s bed like a latter-day warming-pan baby. In support of this, conspiracy theorists pointed to the fact that later in life she gained weight. “She did look like the daughter of a cook,” claimed one (uncredited) source. “You could hardly say she looked aristocratic.”Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was never a person I envisaged reading a book about. But, here we are. I have just finished reading Do Let's Have Another Drink: The Singular Wit and Double Measures of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother by historian Gareth Russell. Just within the last week, Russell's captivating book was named a Best Book of 2022 by The Times. All I can say is this honour is well and truly deserved. When told that Lady Mountbatten was being buried at sea, the Queen Mother replied cheerfully. 'Dear old Edwina, she always did like to make a splash!' I really enjoyed Russell's weaving of Elizabeth's enjoyment of drinking throughout the book. It is clear that she really enjoyed an intense drink quite regularly and the way that she forced guests to imbibe was also quite entertaining to read about. Also, my favourite story had to be the tour where she walked in on a guest in the bathroom.

We’re two old dears, really, aren’t we, William? But we have had some fun’, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1900-2002) in conversation with her long-serving footman Billy Tallon.Do Let’s Have Another Drink!: The Dry Wit and Fizzy Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Gareth Russell My Thoughts: I found this book very enjoyable and different from any other biography I have read. It was written in such a unique way that I found myself saying just one more section, one more section… Gareth Russell’s new biography of the Queen Motheris stuffed full of outrageous anecdotes. Because her father, Lord Strathmore, couldn’t be bothered to register her birth for six weeks, a fabulously bonkers rumour began circulating that she was really the daughter of a French chef. One conspiracist pointed to her podgy appearance, claiming: “She did look like the daughter of a cook.” She was ruthlessly political, especially when it came to the Abdication, and the way in which to treat the former King and Mrs Simpson, who, from their brief appearances in this text, appear to have been thoroughly deserving of the exile they endured.

This is the third and last installment of my "British women during WWII" series. The others were The Mitford Affair and The Churchill Sisters: The Extraordinary Lives of Winston and Clementine's Daughters. This was a great finish because the Queen Mother, Elizabeth, referred to them as well. I've got many uncomfortable feelings about the monarchy but, I heard Gareth Russell on the Savage Lovecast and was fascinated by the history he shared and requested this ARC. It was certainly an interesting read. With 101 anecdotes that span the 101 years of the Queen Mother's life, it was like walking through history through the narrow (euro-centric, aristocratic) window of one person's life. It was also like reading a lot of gossip about a lot of people I had never heard of (and a few I had). I hadn't been sure what I would learn from this book. Like so many others of my generation, who can just about remember the coronation of Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother had always been there as a benign if floaty presence, always smiling, always delicately waving, not saying very much, and to all intents a largely decorative member of the royal family. With the new season of The Crown out today (hello, season 5), there is no better time to chat about this book. The Queen Mother does not play a prominent role in the series, but she certainly was an anchor of the British Royal Family for more than half a century. Gareth Russell is a talented historian, and this is not his first royal biography. ( Young and Damned and Fair, covering Catherine Howard’s life, is one of the best bios I’ve read.) If you are at all interested in the modern British Royal Family or The Crown, Do Let’s Have Another Drink by Gareth Russell is a must-read! The Queen Mother was 101 when she died, having been born in 1900. She grew up in Glamis Castle, Scotland, and married Prince Albert (Bertie), in 1923. Following the Abdication crisis of 1936, Prince Albert was crowned King George VI, and Elizabeth was crowned as Queen Consort. King George VI died fifteen years later, at which point his daughter Elizabeth, became Queen Elizabeth II, and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon became known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

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This is not a traditional biographical book, so if you do not know a great deal about Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and the Queen Mother, I would recommend starting with a different book. That being said this book will definitely give you a glimpse into Elizabeth as a person outside of the offices that she held during her lifetime. All of the anecdotes that Russell included were entertaining and interesting. I am sure that this took a great deal of work as many of the sections were from anecdotal stories of people who knew or knew someone who knew Elizabeth. Wonderful prose, telling stories that are hilarious and moving by turns. Immensely enjoyable’ Suzannah Lipscomb During her lifetime, the Queen Mother was as famous for her clever quips, pointed observations and dry-as-a-Martini delivery style as she was for being a member of the Royal Family. She was also famed for her fondness for ‘drinky-poos’ – usually a gin and Dubonnet or three. Now, Do Let’s Have Another Drink recounts 101 biographical vignettes – one for each year of her long, remarkable life, including her coming-of-age during World War I, the abdication of her brother-in-law, the truth about her tragic nieces and her relationship with her two daughters over half a century of widowhood. The Queen Mother was keen on a sing-song. Noël Coward was an occasional weekend guest at Sandringham, and the two of them duetted to Coward’s greatest hits. “I do love her,” he confided to his diary, after she agreed to come to lunch at Firefly, his Jamaican villa. She liked gay men around her – Cecil Beaton was another friend, although he fell from favour after the publication of his diaries revealed snide remarks about her weight – and she was known for having a preponderance of homosexuals on her household staff. During the debates over decriminalising homosexuality in the 1960s, one crusader asked her to send a moral message to the nation by firing her gay servants. She replied that if she did that, she would end up having to go self-service.