Queen of Our Times by Robert Hardman

 I choose this book to read because Queen Elizabeth the Second was always a distant presence in my life.  When I went to school, her portrait hung in classrooms, and even in the arena of the most popular hockey team in Toronto.  Lands that are owned by the government aren't called 'government' lands in Canada, but 'crown' lands. She was on the money, and it was weird when her portrait was changed as she aged. By the time I was born, she had already been Queen for two decades and would go on to be queen for five more.  I was a teenager when the debacle of Charles and Diana reached its tragic end. It is strange because the royal family is clearly like any other family, filled with kind and unkind people, saints and criminals, and yet- they have always seen alien to me.  Queen Elizabeth was like an archetype of a grandmother to me. My own grandmother died very young, and I imagine that they would have had similar personalities.  In this book, it is revealed that the Queen kept a private journal every day, but that she didn't have time to write anything but the outlines of events, not her feelings.  Once, I came upon my grandmother's journal that she had written and it was the same way- a dry description of the weather, of social meetings, church events. The author clearly has favourites in the royal family, he's particularly fond of the Queen, prince Charles, and his children, and not so much of Prince Andrew and Megan Markle. I know that it's King Charles now, but that seems so odd to me to write. Though the author is quite critical of the series the Crown, if you have seen it, there's no reason to read this book.  It's not that the book is bad or anything, it is passible.  It might be good if you want to know where the Crown is more fictional than factual.  Leverton Review 4/5