Denys Blakeway Livres

An absorbing account of a turning-point in British history

On June the 2nd 2003, the Queen celebrates the 50th anniversary of her coronation. Yet despite acres of newsprint about her and her family, still surprisingly little is known about the real character and motivation of this most private of public figures. This biography examines Elizabeth's life in the context of her role as head of a nation which - like the monarchy itself - has undergone a period of extraordinary change during the last 50 years. A vast sweep of friends and family, politicians and retired palace staff close to the Queen have been interviewed exclusively for the book, including Nelson Mandela, Lady Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Sir Edward Heath, Lord Healey, Sir Trevor AMcdonald and Lord Carnarvon.

THE FALKLANDS WAR, which accompanies Channel Four's major series on the war, tells the extraordinary story of what has been called "Britain's last imperial fandango". Ten years on, politicians, generals and ordinary soldiers from both sides are able to speak out frankly for the first time. In doing so they make some startling revelations about the misunderstandings between Britain and Argentina which led to the conflict, and the extraordinary difficulties the British faced fighting so far from home. Strikingly illustrated, this authoritative account shows how a minor dispute over a sparsely populated group of islands blew up into an international crisis in which more than 1,000 men died.