It has been fascinating to learn more about Queen Elizabeth, someone I really didn't know all that much about. It has been very interesting to start with her early life before WWII and then during the war, and then to progress seemingly quickly through the decades to the current era, and to realize that she has been alive throughout all of it--and queen of England for most of it! It is unbelievable that she was basically my age when she became queen, and that she's been doing her royal duties for her entire life. It was also very interesting to learn more about what those "royal duties" are, since I'd always kind of imagined the royal family were more of just centerpieces and ornaments rather than actually accomplishing anything, but the queen and her family are really very busy and do lots of important things for Great Britain. She is a kind of ambassador to the world and to the country, and she has made a huge difference in a lot of events through her presence and her actions. This book also lightly covered British history over the period of her lifetime, since her life and the events in her country are so tied together. There are seemingly two whole chapters on the Diana era and her death and funeral, which seemed a bit overdoing it, but I imagine that's something that a huge number of readers associate with the royal family and want to learn more about. I enjoyed reading about the different changes the monarchy has made over the decades to remain relevant in today's culture and how the queen has had to remain flexible over changes in government and public opinion.
Listening to this book, I can't help but wonder how biased the author is. Basically in every story and situation the queen comes out untarnished and the author explains how she is just amazing at everything and basically always made the right choices. I really do admire the queen after listening to this book and everything that she has accomplished. I'd heard that she (and the royal family) had not treated Diana very well, but it really seems like it was more the other way around (although I'm sure it was on both sides). However, the queen is expected to be completely neutral on political topics (which is very interesting to me) and this forced neutrality has probably helped her to remain in good light for many experiences in her life, like that one with Diana.
It does seem sad to see how her children have acted and how they've turned out--almost all of them had affairs within their marriages and got divorced at one point or another. The author points out that the queen had a "laissez-faire" view of parenting and hardly ever intervened or got involved in disciplining them or telling them what to do, and she was apparently not super involved with some of them when they were young, and this has turned out to haunt her in later years. Honestly, that just seems so sad to me. It reminds me of the LDS quote: No success can compensate for failure in the home. She has done amazing, wonderful things for her country and the world, but her relationship with her children and their actions towards others must be a source of regret and frustration for her (as described by the author of this book).
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