George VI and Elizabeth
The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy
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Narrated by:
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Rosalyn Landor
About this listen
A revelatory account of how the loving marriage of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth saved the monarchy during World War II, and how they raised their daughter to become Queen Elizabeth II, based on exclusive access to the Royal Archives—from the bestselling author of Elizabeth the Queen and Prince Charles
“An intimate and gripping portrait of a royal marriage that survived betrayal, tragedy, and war.”—Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire
Granted special access by Queen Elizabeth II to her parents’ letters and diaries and to the papers of their close friends and family, Sally Bedell Smith brings the love story of this iconic royal couple to vibrant life. This deeply researched and revealing book shows how a loving and devoted marriage helped the King and Queen meet the challenges of World War II, lead a nation, solidify the public’s faith in the monarchy, and raise their daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.
When King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936, shattering the Crown’s reputation, his younger brother, known as Bertie, assumed his father’s name and became King George VI. Shy, sensitive, and afflicted with a stutter, George VI had never imagined that he would become King. His wife, Elizabeth, a pretty, confident, and outgoing woman who became known later in life as “the Queen Mum,” strengthened and advised her husband. With his wife’s support, guidance, and love, George VI was able to overcome his insecurities and become an exceptional leader, navigating the country through World War II, establishing a relationship with Winston Churchill, visiting Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in Washington and in Hyde Park, and inspiring the British people with his courage and compassion during the Blitz. Simultaneously, George VI and Elizabeth trained their daughter Princess Elizabeth from an early age to be a highly successful monarch, and she would reign for an unprecedented seventy years.
Sally Bedell Smith gives us an inside view of the lives, struggles, hopes, and triumphs of King George VI and Elizabeth during a pivotal time in history.
©2023 Sally Bedell Smith (P)2023 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Smith’s lively account reminds readers that at its finest hour—whatever the historic sins or abiding iniquities of the British Empire itself—the crown managed to stand for selfless leadership, resilience and compassion for its people.” —The New York Times
“George VI and Elizabeth is a vivid history that captures the courage of a couple whose actions saved a monarchy. It is also a largely unknown love story. Sally Bedell Smith’s reputation rests on her commitment to scholarship and access to previously undiscovered information. But it’s not enough to find it—you have to bring wisdom to it. This book is a deeply moving marvel.” —Peggy Noonan, columnist for The Wall Street Journal
“Sally Bedell Smith takes us into the inner sanctum of the Windsors, giving us an intimate and gripping portrait of a royal marriage that survived betrayal, tragedy, and war. The product of meticulous research, George VI and Elizabeth is an unputdownable book.” —Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire
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The Manchester Evening News declared, it took "a biographer like Ingrid Seward to unleash a sober, challenging glimpse into the one relationship of such scrutiny." That relationship is the complex, troubled, and often turbulent association between Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth.
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Quite one sided.
- By Beatnik RN on 02-17-15
By: Ingrid Seward
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Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey
- By: The Countess of Carnarvon
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- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
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Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the setting for Julian Fellowes’s Emmy Award-winning PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Catherine Wendell.
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Not what was advertised
- By Jessica C Anderson on 09-10-19
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Elizabeth the Queen
- The Life of a Modern Monarch
- By: Sally Bedell Smith
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the moment of her ascension to the throne in 1952 at the age of twenty-five, Queen Elizabeth II has been the object of unparalleled scrutiny. But through the fog of glamour and gossip, how well do we really know the world’s most famous monarch? Drawing on numerous interviews and never-before-revealed documents, acclaimed biographer Sally Bedell Smith pulls back the curtain to show in intimate detail the public and private lives of Queen Elizabeth II.
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The world's longest public relations statement
- By Truth Speaker on 01-30-12
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King's Counsellor
- Abdication and War: The Diaries of Sir Alan Lascelles
- By: Sir Alan Lascelles, Duff Hart-Davis
- Narrated by: Pip Torrens
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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As Assistant Private Secretary to four monarchs, 'Tommy' Lascelles had a ringside seat from which to observe the workings of the royal household and Downing Street during the first half of the 20th century. These fascinating diaries begin with Edward VIII's abdication and end with George VI's death and his daughter Elizabeth's Coronation. In between we see George VI at work and play, a portrait more intimate than any other previously published.
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One of the most enjoyable audiobooks I've heard.
- By Elizabeth on 04-14-21
By: Sir Alan Lascelles, and others
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Eleanor
- By: David Michaelis
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 19 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first single-volume cradle-to-grave portrait in six decades, acclaimed biographer David Michaelis delivers a stunning account of Eleanor Roosevelt’s remarkable life of transformation. An orphaned niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, she converted her Gilded Age childhood of denial and secrecy into an irreconcilable marriage with her ambitious fifth cousin Franklin. Franklin Roosevelt transformed Eleanor from a settlement house volunteer on New York’s Lower East Side into a matching partner in New York’s most important power couple in a generation.
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Stands apart from other biographies of ER
- By Debra Malone on 11-20-20
By: David Michaelis
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The Lost Queen
- The Life & Tragedy of the Prince Regent's Daughter
- By: Anne M. Stott
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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As the only child of the Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick, Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796-1817) was the heiress presumptive to the throne. Her parents' marriage had already broken up by the time she was born. She had a difficult childhood and a turbulent adolescence, but she was popular with the public, who looked to her to restore the good name of the monarchy.
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excellent
- By meganajjcec on 10-12-20
By: Anne M. Stott
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The Daughters of Yalta
- The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War
- By: Catherine Grace Katz
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
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Tensions during the Yalta Conference in February 1945 threatened to tear apart the wartime alliance among Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin just as victory was close at hand. Catherine Grace Katz uncovers the dramatic story of the three young women who were chosen by their fathers to travel with them to Yalta, each bound by fierce family loyalty, political savvy, and intertwined romances that powerfully colored these crucial days.
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Engaging
- By Jean on 06-19-21
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The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 1
- Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, and the Making of a Young Queen (1947-1955)
- By: Robert Lacey
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Starring Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II and John Lithgow as Winston Churchill, Netflix's original series The Crown, created by Peter Morgan and growing out of his Oscar-winning movie The Queen starring Helen Mirren, paints a unique and intimate portrait of Britain's longest-reigning monarch. This official companion to the show's first season is an in-depth exploration of the early years of Elizabeth II's time as queen, complete with extensive research and additional material.
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If you like The Crown
- By E F on 10-23-17
By: Robert Lacey
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Those Wild Wyndhams
- Three Sisters at the Heart of Power
- By: Claudia Renton
- Narrated by: Claudia Renton
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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They were confidantes to British prime ministers, poets, writers, and artists, their lives entwined with the most celebrated and scandalous figures of the day, from Oscar Wilde to Henry James. They were the lovers of great men - or men of great prominence... They lived in a world of luxurious excess, a world of splendor at 44 Belgrave Square and later at the even more vast Clouds, the exquisite Wiltshire house on 4,000 acres, the "house of the age", designed in 1876 by the visionary architect Philip Webb - the model for Henry James' The Spoils of Poynton.
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SLOW START BUT STICK WITH THIS ONE
- By The Louligan on 01-22-19
By: Claudia Renton
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Martha Washington
- An American Life
- By: Patricia Brady
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
With this revelatory and painstakingly researched book, Martha Washington, the invisible woman of American history, at last gets the biography she deserves. In place of the domestic frump of popular imagination, Patricia Brady resurrects the wealthy, attractive, and vivacious young widow who captivated the youthful George Washington. And even as it brings Martha Washington into sharper and more accurate focus, this sterling life sheds light on her marriage, her society, and the precedents she established for future First Ladies.
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DAR Book Club
- By Kimberly Dillard on 12-26-23
By: Patricia Brady
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Oblivion or Glory
- 1921 and the Making of Winston Churchill
- By: David Stafford
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This is an engaging and original account of 1921, a pivotal year for Winston Churchill that had a lasting impact on his political and personal legacy. After the tragic consequences of his involvement in the catastrophic Dardanelles Campaign of World War I, Churchill’s political career seemed over. He was widely regarded as little more than a bombastic and unpredictable buccaneer until, in 1921, an unexpected inheritance heralded a series of events that laid the foundations for his future success.
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Great explanation if this great m Chirchill’s an
- By David Hitchins on 10-25-20
By: David Stafford
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The Romanov Sisters
- The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
- By: Helen Rappaport
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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They were the Princess Dianas of their day—perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses—Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov—were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore and their privileged lifestyle. Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and their tragic end in a basement at Ekaterinburg in 1918 has clouded our view of them, leading to a mass of sentimental and idealized hagiography.
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Made you want to change the ending
- By MissSusie66 on 01-23-15
By: Helen Rappaport
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great but long listen
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Interesting book undermined by narrator
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Excellent! UPDATED review after 2nd listen.
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Well-written and very good narration!
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Edward, Prince of Wales, better known as "Bertie", was the eldest son of Queen Victoria. Charming and dissolute, he was a larger-than-life personality with king-size appetites. A lifelong womanizer, Bertie conducted his countless liaisons against the glittering backdrop of London society, Europe, and the stately homes of England in the second half of the 19th century. Bertie's lovers were beautiful, spirited society women who embraced a wide field of occupations.
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The Queen Mother
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Exasperating At Times But Very Good--
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Matriarch
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The life of Princess May of Teck is one of the great Cinderella stories in history. From a family of impoverished nobility, she was chosen by Queen Victoria as the bride for her eldest grandson, the scandalous Duke of Clarence, heir to the throne, who died mysteriously before their marriage. Despite this setback, she became queen, mother of two kings, grandmother of the current queen, and a lasting symbol of the majesty of the British throne.
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Wow! Did not want this to end!
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Do Let's Have Another Drink!
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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 beloved royal. Now, Do Let’s Have Another Drink recounts 101 (one for each year of her remarkable life) amusing and astonishing vignettes from across her long life, including her coming of age during World War I, the abdication of her brother-in-law and her unexpected ascendance to the throne, and her half century of widowhood as her daughter reigned over the United Kingdom.
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The Grandest of Grand Dames
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Jackie, Janet & Lee
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If the Bouvier women personified beauty, style, and fashion, it was their lust for money and status that drove them to seek out powerful men, no matter what the cost to themselves or to those they stepped on in their ruthless climb to the top. Based on hundreds of new interviews with friends and family of the Bouviers, among them their own half brother, as well as letters and journals, J. Randy Taraborrelli paints an extraordinary psychological portrait of two famous sisters and their ferociously ambitious mother.
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Terrible narration! No way to give no stars.
- By Linda on 02-19-18
What listeners say about George VI and Elizabeth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Barbara
- 11-11-23
Wonderful
This book is well written and the descriptions of the characters are well done. The beginning was a bit tedious when telling about the Queen Mother’s upbringing but suppose that was how life was. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy history.
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- dkryan
- 05-12-23
Wonderful biography!
Relates all the fascinating events surrounding George VI and Elizabeth, from their courtship, to the abdication, to the war years. Very enjoyable book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Nancy
- 04-15-23
Great telling of their lives
Really a very good book! I've read a good amount about the Windsor royal family and this book gives a summary of their legacy to their nation and to the world, especially their stand against their WW2 foes!
Well written, excellent narration, highly recommended!
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7 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 05-27-23
Excellent
Really enjoyed this book - factual, excellent writing and audio. One of Thebes I have read about members of the Royal Family.
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1 person found this helpful
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- BookFan
- 01-12-24
Covered the relationship from the start to the king’s death
The author’s descriptions paint vivid pictures so that it’s possible to imagine you can almost see the scene. Nevertheless, the details sometimes were too much to hold my attention. Overall, I enjoyed the book.
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- brian
- 05-03-23
Have been fascinated by the Royal family.
American, but, very interested in the British Royal Family, and with George Vi's grandson becoming the UK's next king Saturday, figured I'd start learning more about him and his wife, and others. Both author and narrator are a team I'm familiar with, and both are once again in fine form here. A must-have for history geeks, or fans of the UK's current royal family.
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- jcbird
- 05-22-24
Very good book
This book did a great job explaining the lives of King George VI and his wife. I very much enjoyed the detail. I would highly recommend.
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- Mary Anne Lowry
- 04-16-23
Enjoyed very much
I enjoyed listening to this book. It was beautifully written and recorded. I loved learning about how they began their relationship and seeing their love for one another got them through tests and trials plus a war. Their love is what fairy tales are made from.
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- Sadie's Mom
- 04-05-24
The reality and humanity of the telling of this life story was brought out in a very pleasant and entertaining manner.
I enjoyed the way their story was told. Not sad, or boring, as many biographies are. I felt part of the story; a witness to history.
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- Mark Haynie
- 10-03-24
love this book!!!!
Just what I wanted. Narrator was delightful.
A great couple biography about a great couple during abdication, WWII and rebuilding,
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