Q, Craig Brown
Q, Craig Brown
List: $32.99 | Sale: $23.10
Club: $16.49

Q
A Voyage Around the Queen

Author: Craig Brown

Narrator: Craig Brown, Harriet Walter

Unabridged: 19 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/2024


Synopsis

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.

About Craig Brown

Craig Brown is a prolific journalist and author. He has been writing his parodic diary in Private Eye since 1989. He is the only person ever to have won three different Press Awards—for best humorist, columnist, and critic—in the same year. He has been a columnist for The Guardian, The Times (London), The Spectator, and The Daily Telegraph, among others. He currently writes for The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. His New York Times bestseller, Hello Goodbye Hello was translated into ten languages.


Reviews

Goodreads review by *TUDOR^QUEEN* on September 09, 2024

3.5 Stars I very much enjoyed this author's similarly styled book about The Beatles, so was intrigued to ingest this one about Queen Elizabeth II. This, too, was a delight. The book clocks in at almost 700 pages, crammed with stories about this royal icon's Coronation, The Royal Yacht Britannia, conv......more

Goodreads review by Ashley on October 01, 2024

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review. I'm so glad I took a chance on this one and requested the ARC. It was so much fun! It avoided literally everything that usually makes me avoid reading biographies: the tedious linear structure, the gran......more

Goodreads review by Nick on March 09, 2025

I’ve never liked the British royal family and have long believed that the world would be better off without it. Nobody should be allowed to pretend that they are somehow better than anyone else just because their ancestors stole land from peasants. However I was fascinated by the late queen Elizabet......more

Goodreads review by Carolyn on October 07, 2024

An unconventional biography of Queen Elizabeth II told through more than 100 examples of her impact on society and culture over the course of her long life and reign. Some of the sources will be familiar to readers who have read a lot of books about the royal family but there are also some new sourc......more


Awards

  • Washington Post Best Books of the Year