As you may have noticed, this has been a very British year for our family. Starting in the summer, I began searching for and reading as many books about the monarchy as I could find. I prefer reading “authorized biographies,” especially for contemporary figures, so I focused on finding as many of those as possible. Many of them are out of print, but I was able to track down pretty much everything I was looking for in our library system. I did have a few more “scandalous” books on my list, too, but nothing that was intentionally negative about the royals, and only books written by respectable authors–nothing sensational. Other than general information on the monarchy, I started at about the time of Queen Victoria, and moved to the present day from there.

Official Biographies:

• King George V by Kenneth Rose
• Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy
• King Edward VIII by Philip Ziegler
• King George VI by John Wheeler-Bennett
• Mountbatten by Philip Ziegler
• The Queen Mother by William Shawcross
• Counting One’s Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother by William Shawcross
• Dressing the Queen by Angela Kelly

Other Biographies:

• We Two by Gillian Gill
• The King’s Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
• The Little Princesses by Marion Crawford
• Her Majesty: The Court of Queen Elizabeth II by Robert Hardman
• The Real Elizabeth by Andrew Marr
• Prince Philip by Philip Eade
• Philip and Elizabeth by Gyles Brandreth
• Jubilee! Queen Elizabeth II–60 Years on the Throne by the Editors of Life magazine
• Elizabeth: Reigning in Style by Jane Eastoe

General Information:

• Royal Britain by Charles Philips
• A Year with the Queen by Robert Hardman

Crown Jewels:

• The Queen’s Jewels by Leslie Field
• Crown Jewels of Britain and Europe by Prince Michael of Greece
• The Queen’s Diamonds by Hugh Roberts
• Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration by Caroline de Guitaut (This book and the one that follows are the only ones I haven’t even looked at, as our library system doesn’t have them. I hope to see them eventually, though!)
• The Crown Jewels by Anna Keay

And, a few bonus royal documentaries, just because I can!

• Windsor Castle: A Royal Year
• Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work
• Queen and Country
• Diamond Queen
• The Queen’s Palaces

I didn’t finish reading all of them…there just wasn’t time. But I do intend to go back and finish the rest, because it’s so interesting to read about the history of Europe’s most prominent royal family!