cover image Queen Elizabeth II: A Woman Who is Not Amused

Queen Elizabeth II: A Woman Who is Not Amused

Nicholas Davies. Carol Publishing Corporation, $24.95 (511pp) ISBN 978-1-55972-217-9

Having completed the obligatory Princess Di book ( Diana: A Princess and Her Troubled Marriage ), Davies, a self-styled ``royal expert,'' here turns to beleaguered Queen Elizabeth II. He presents a conscientious, duty-driven servant of the monarchy, whose major vices appear to be feeding her corgis at table and reading the Racing Times . Although Davies also finds her cold toward children, including her own, this is hardly the stuff of bestsellers. Undaunted, Davies interweaves a standard account of the routine at ``Buck House'' where the Queen sits at her dispatch boxes or at tea, with graphic depictions of the alleged sexual diversions of almost everyone else in the House of Windsor. Davies singles out Prince Philip, whom he characterizes as a boorish philanderer, constantly embarassing his wife. The author claims Philip had a 20-year affair with his wife's cousin, Princess Alexandra of Yugoslavia, and that he fathered two children with a French cabaret artist. Certain scandals of sexual misconduct by assorted royals revealed here have already been chewed over by the press; other tales, the reader suspects, are hyperbole. Davies's sources are ``close friends'' of Elizabeth and Philip, previously published biographies and the tales of John Barratt, former valet to the late Lord Mountbatten of Burma. Taste is not high on Davies's agenda: he refers to the 94-year-old Queen Mother in the past tense, as if predicting her demise before publication date; ``a substantial portion of palace staff are gay'' he tells us for no apparent reason; and he ridicules Princess Anne for wearing cotton underwear. Photos. 50,000 first printing. (June)