This book goes into extreme depth of the life of the fifth longest reigning monarch in British history, Queen Elizabeth II. What she is like, what she must do as her position as the Queen, and what she stands for are a few of the questions that are answered in this biography by Ben Pimlott. Reading the book was an interesting and enjoyable experience that helps to understand the stresses of living life as a monarch.

With the Constitutionally-mandated reduction in the sovereign's power in the past hundred years, it's easy to see the Queen of England as a figurehead. A mascot, if you will, whose only powers are to be advised and to consent. A study of Ben Pimlott's nearly seven hundred pages will teach you why this has happened, particularly in the last nearly fifty years.

The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II is something of an oddity in today's world--a study of the political power the monarch still holds and how that power has been wielded (or not) during the current reign. It's fascinating, and in a world filled with tawdry junk bios about the private lives of the Royal Family, this factual reference book is a gem.

It's true the Queen commands less politically than any of her predecessors, but that's more her own fault than anyone else's. She appears to have CHOSEN, for some reason known only to her, to reign but not rule. Even her father, George VI, that most dutiful of monarchs, often made important decisions in critical situations---and no one questioned him because he was the King. His daughter has spent her reign, since 1952, playing it safe, never pushing the Constitutional line between Sovereign and Government. Because the line's never been pushed by the Queen, the Government has encroached ever more obviously onto what was once unquestionably the Monarch's territory.

It would be difficult for the Queen to push back now; she's already given up too much. It will be nearly impossible for the next monarch (most likely Prince Charles) to recover lost ground; he will most likely be only a ceremonial king, in the manner of the Danes and Swedes. Elizabeth II has allowed herself, her decendants, and the British monarchy itself to become Constitutionally hemmed in, and it's doubtful they'll ever cut their way out.

Pimlott explains all of this with several examples of laws passed since 1952, each limiting the sovereign's power a bit more. The Queen has, for whatever reason, not refused her signature to any of these laws though, technically, she still has that right.

Elizabeth II: A Biography is well-written and exhaustively referenced. The many photographs included aren't the ones that always show up in biographies about the Royal Family; there are several I've never seen before. There are no anonymous sources to question; everyone is either well-known, or he/she is explained to the reader. This may be a better book for English readers than for Americans, since several of the matters discussed pertain only to the English, and Americans may be bored by the minutiae of individual British case law.

Final decision: A tad dry, but the best examination of Elizabeth II's reign I've seen.

Ben Pimlot provides a fascinating insight into the head of the House of Windsor. This excellent biography explores the public life of the British sovereign and also reveals a poignant picture of the private life of the monarch. She is a woman of wit and humour with the common touch which endears her to the world; witness her fondness for rough cider and bawdy humour and her enduring interest in the British mod scooter scene. A welcome addition to coffee table or serious library alike, this book just keeps cranking out the laughs.

Pimlott takes us close to Wilson, or so it seems, but perhaps not as close as Zielger managed to albeit with the assistance of Lady Faulklander. The book offers a detailed account of the times, and is likely to appeal to those who seek multiple views of this interesting man.

This is a huge biography of Harold Wilson, charting his life from his origins in provincial England, through his time as an Oxford Don and wartime civil servant, his rise within the Labour Party and achievement of election victories, and subsequent retirement.

Pimlott is a sympathetic biographer - he was at one time a Parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party - and tries to give Wilson's period in office due credit. Perhaps at times he is too sympathetic, but I thought that it was right to draw attention particularly to the social reforms carried out in Wilson's first period in office, reforms which reshaped British society in significant ways and which many people would now take for granted.

Pimlott devotes a great deal of time to the power struggles within the Labour Party, so much so that that the struggle for electoral victory with the Conservative Party almost disappears from view: important as the internal rivalries no doubt were in Wilson's rise and time as Labour leader, I thought that the book was slightly lacking in balance.

It seemed to me that Pimlott's view is that Wilson's rise within the Labour Party was due to the fact that he occupied a place in the middle of the Party - not being tied completely to one faction. When the time appeared right to dispense with the old guard, who ran the Party almost like an Oxbridge gentlemen's club, Wilson was there as a fresh alternative, and the same argument can be made to explain Labour's ousting of the old Conservative government in 1964. Thereafter, Wilson's role seemed to be as much holding his own Party together as opposing the Conservatives.

Pimlott charts the disillusionment which eventually overwhelmed the 1964-1970 government in great detail - a government which entered office with such high hopes. It's also interesting to read about how much politicians of all parties believed so much in the efficacy of state control of the economy, and how much this was based on a mistaken interpretation of the extent of economic progress in the Soviet bloc.

The book is long, but I thought that it was very readable. Pimlott does go occasionally over the top, for example with an hysterical piece of writing on the demise of grammar schools: a more measured analysis was needed. Nonetheless, a very interesting book for anyone interested in post-war British politics.