As Green points out in his introduction, Queen Anne remains a remarkably obscure British monarch, considering the relatively recent date of her reign (1702-1714). To some, such as Churchil, she was shining queen of the Augustan age; to others, she was an inconsequential ninny. The central relationship of her life was a "friendship" with Sarah Jennings, wife of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and many now accept that the relationship was sexual.

Sadly, Green's biography doesn't approach the same level of excellence that his earlier biography of the Duchess of Marlborough. Even though Anne suffered through seventeen pregnancies (none bearing her a surviving heir), even though she witnessed revolution (and usurped her own father), even though she presided over the Union of England and Scotland (thus becoming the first person to reign a unified Great Britain) and even though she reigned through a tumultuous world war, we are lost in a morass of private letters and a catalogue of courtiers' comings and goings. And, for what it is worth, Green is prepared to suggest that Anne's feelings for Sarah were purely platonic. This would get three stars if not for the fact that the sources are so good. But the great popular biography of Anne perhaps remains to be written.