Elizabeth the Queen

Elizabeth the Queen (2012) is a brisk yet in-depth exposé of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Tracing key moments in her life, big and small, lighthearted and tragic, it pulls back the curtain on a most singular figure. Elizabeth II was at once a woman who struggled to balance her roles as both mother and monarch; a leader who learned to embody dignity and diplomacy; and the calm epicenter of the drama that ever swirled around her closest relations.

• Royal watchers and anglophiles
• Americans interested in British politics
• Biography lovers

Sally Bedell Smith is a historian, biographer, and contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine. She’s published biographies of Princess Diana, John F. and Jackie Kennedy, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Prince Charles, among others. She served as the consultant for Peter Morgan’s The Audience, a play about Queen Elizabeth II and her relationships with various British prime ministers.