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A Queen Adored: England's Elizabeth Ii

A Queen Adored: England's Elizabeth II


Countess of Longford, Elizabeth Pakenham, was born in London England in
1906. She attended Lady Margaret Hall and Oxford University where she studied
classical history and philosophy. She later married Oxford professor and
politician, the seventh Earl of Longford in 1931, with whom she had eight
children. She worked as a tutor from 1930-36 in the Worker's Educational
Association, and was a member of the Paddington and St. Pomcras Rent Tribunal
from 1946-51. She was also a Labour party candidate for Cheltenham, and later
for the City of Oxford. After both campaigns proved unsuccessful, Longford
began her career as a writer in 1954, where she concentrated on the topic of
parenting. She later turned her focus to British history, and became recognized
for her talent as a biographer. She was awarded the James Tait Memorial Prize
for best biography in 1964 for Victoria R.I. Longford claimed the Yorkshire
Post Book of the Year Award twice with Wellington,1969, and The Royal House of
Windsor, Winston Churchill in 1974. It is with this same thoroughness and true
human interest that she captures the life of England's reigning monarch in The
Queen; The Life of Elizabeth II.
Though surveys have revealed that at any one time between 15 and 30% of
the English people claim they would prefer a republic, the majority uphold the
traditional support of the monarchy, as has been the English custom for over a
thousand years. Since 1952 the endeared Queen Elizabeth II has played this role
in her country's politics as an important aspect of the modern nation's
identity. As she has proved neither conservative nor liberal in her stance, she
has so come to symbolize a popular democracy.
It was raining on the sunless April day in 1926 when Elizabeth Bowes-
Lyon announced to her husband of three years that it was time. The Duke and
Duchess of York were anticipating the birth of their first child. As the
doctors were soon to discover,...