BUY NOW

This is the first biography of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh - both royal, both great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria, but, in temperament and upbringing, two very different people. The Queen's childhood was loving and secure, the Duke's was turbulent: his grandfather assassinated, his father arrested, his family exiled, his parents separated when he was only ten.

Elizabeth and Philip met as cousins in the 1930s. They married in 1947, aged twenty-one and twenty-six. A little more than four years later, they were Queen and consort. For almost sixty years theirs have been among the most famous faces in the world - yet the personalities behind the image remain elusive and the nature of their marriage is an enigma.

Philip & Elizabeth tells the extraordinary story of these two contrasting lives, assesses their achievement, together and apart, and explores the nature of their relationships, with one another and with their children.

Praise:
'Philip & Elizabeth boldly goes where other royal biographers have previously feared to tread... The book is exceptionally hard to put down.' 
- Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times

'Wonderfully entertaining... impressive... compelling.' 
- John-Paul Flintoff, Financial Times

'Thoroughly entertaining... Filled with insights... He has had enviable access and he has used it well.' 
- Penny Juror, Daily Telegraph

'Cheeky, gossipy, often highly amusing... A most engagingly intimate volume.' 
- Peter Mackay, Evening Standard

'A joy... thoughtful... outrageous... sympathetic, wholly original, often hilarious, occasionally profound and unfailingly interesting... I came away with the strong feeling that I had glimpsed the Queen and Prince Philip for the first time as they really are.' 
- Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

'Philip & Elizabeth is a unique biography. It is a powerful and revealing portrait of a remarkable partnership, told with authority and insight, and illustrated with photographs from the couple's collections.'
- Ingrid Seward, Majesty