Q: A Voyage Around the Queen

This program is read by the author and by actor Harriet Walter, known for her roles in Succession, Ted Lasso, and Killing Eve.

With equal measures of wit and wisdom, the author of 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret draws a deeply original, hilarious, and telling portrait of the Queen herself.

She was the most famous person on earth; she first appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of three. When she died, few people were old enough to recall a time when she was not alive.

Her likeness has been reproduced-in photographs, on stamps, on the notes and coins of thirty different currencies-more than any since Jesus. It is probable that, over the course of her ninety-six years, she was introduced to a greater number of different people than anyone else who has ever lived-likely well over half a million. Yet this most closely observed of all women rarely left any real impression on those she encountered beyond vague notions of her "radiance" and "sense of duty." A high proportion of those she met can remember what they said to her, but not a word of what she said to them.

Up until now, the curious tactic employed by biographers of the Queen has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown, the author of 150 Glimpses of the Beatles and Hello Goodbye Hello, rejects this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to the most famous-and most guarded- woman on earth, examining the Queen through a succession of interlocking prisms. With Q, this fantastically funny, marvelously insightful journalist gives us an unforgettable portrait of the omnipresent, elusive Queen Elizabeth II.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

1144629520
Q: A Voyage Around the Queen

This program is read by the author and by actor Harriet Walter, known for her roles in Succession, Ted Lasso, and Killing Eve.

With equal measures of wit and wisdom, the author of 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret draws a deeply original, hilarious, and telling portrait of the Queen herself.

She was the most famous person on earth; she first appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of three. When she died, few people were old enough to recall a time when she was not alive.

Her likeness has been reproduced-in photographs, on stamps, on the notes and coins of thirty different currencies-more than any since Jesus. It is probable that, over the course of her ninety-six years, she was introduced to a greater number of different people than anyone else who has ever lived-likely well over half a million. Yet this most closely observed of all women rarely left any real impression on those she encountered beyond vague notions of her "radiance" and "sense of duty." A high proportion of those she met can remember what they said to her, but not a word of what she said to them.

Up until now, the curious tactic employed by biographers of the Queen has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown, the author of 150 Glimpses of the Beatles and Hello Goodbye Hello, rejects this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to the most famous-and most guarded- woman on earth, examining the Queen through a succession of interlocking prisms. With Q, this fantastically funny, marvelously insightful journalist gives us an unforgettable portrait of the omnipresent, elusive Queen Elizabeth II.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

32.99 In Stock
Q: A Voyage Around the Queen

Q: A Voyage Around the Queen

by Craig Brown

Narrated by Craig Brown, Harriet Walter

Unabridged — 19 hours, 49 minutes

Q: A Voyage Around the Queen

Q: A Voyage Around the Queen

by Craig Brown

Narrated by Craig Brown, Harriet Walter

Unabridged — 19 hours, 49 minutes

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Overview

This program is read by the author and by actor Harriet Walter, known for her roles in Succession, Ted Lasso, and Killing Eve.

With equal measures of wit and wisdom, the author of 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret draws a deeply original, hilarious, and telling portrait of the Queen herself.

She was the most famous person on earth; she first appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of three. When she died, few people were old enough to recall a time when she was not alive.

Her likeness has been reproduced-in photographs, on stamps, on the notes and coins of thirty different currencies-more than any since Jesus. It is probable that, over the course of her ninety-six years, she was introduced to a greater number of different people than anyone else who has ever lived-likely well over half a million. Yet this most closely observed of all women rarely left any real impression on those she encountered beyond vague notions of her "radiance" and "sense of duty." A high proportion of those she met can remember what they said to her, but not a word of what she said to them.

Up until now, the curious tactic employed by biographers of the Queen has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown, the author of 150 Glimpses of the Beatles and Hello Goodbye Hello, rejects this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to the most famous-and most guarded- woman on earth, examining the Queen through a succession of interlocking prisms. With Q, this fantastically funny, marvelously insightful journalist gives us an unforgettable portrait of the omnipresent, elusive Queen Elizabeth II.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.


Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Q is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth unlike any other . . . absorbing, edifying and frequently laugh-out-loud funny.” —Clare McHugh, The Washington Post

“An engrossing, comprehensive and gloriously bizarre portrait of the late monarch.” —John Banville, The Guardian

“An entertaining and revealing digest…fascinating… Craig Brown has captured something essential about Britain’s curious relationship with royalty.” —Miranda France, TLS

Kirkus Reviews

2024-07-17
Fond mosaic of the far-reaching life of the late Queen Elizabeth.

A keen observer of the royals, British humorist and prolific author Brown offers a roaming, disjointed collage of Elizabeth II, who died at age 96 in 2022. A symbol, a cypher, and an icon, the queen was the country’s obsession as well as a mirror to its people over her long life. “There are even times I wonder if I know more about the Queen and her family than I do about myself,” Brown writes. Her entire life from birth in 1926 was open to public scrutiny; the first biography about her was published when she was four. “Hers was the most familiar, most photographed face in human history,” he adds. The author devotes many of his short, breezy chapters to encounters with the queen recorded by Kingsley Amis, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Philip Larkin, Cecil Beaton, and Hillary Mantel, among others: what it felt like to be in the presence of this formidable face, shake her hand, and get caught in terrifying, platitudinous exchanges with her. In her presence, people were often tongue-tied or star-struck or got woozy, records Brown, even those as famous as she. Her natural reticence made much conversation awkward, outside of discussing her beloved horses and corgis, but she was dogged in the meet-and-greet until her dying days. Complimented on her acting in a movie cameo with Paddington Bear in the last year of her life, she replied, “Well of course, I do it all the time.” Brown does not omit the royal family’s well-publicized scandals, but the tone here overall is appreciative and nostalgic.

A gently satiric reflection, even including dreams, of how the world went gaga for Queen Elizabeth.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940191555560
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication date: 10/01/2024
Edition description: Unabridged
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