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Article: The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- November 16, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE QUEEN: A BIOGRAPHY OF ELIZABETH II. By Ben Pimlott. HarperCollins; 651 pages; Pounds 20
THE most important long-term decisions are sometimes taken by people who have no idea what they are doing. Ben Pimlott, in his excellent biography of Queen Elizabeth, gives the impression that the British monarchy is in such desperate trouble today because the queen and her courtiers a generation ago failed to take heed for the future. They were inexorably moving into an impasse-but did not know it.
The queen inherited her conception of the monarchy from her father and grandfather. Ascending the throne at the age of 25, she had no ideas of her own. All she knew for sure ...