Table of contents for QE 100 Bookazine in Britain

For a hundred years since the birth of Queen Elizabeth II, her life and legacy have shaped the story of modern Britain and the wider Commonwealth. In this special commemorative edition from the publishers of BRITAIN magazine, we look back across a remarkable reign to explore the people and places that defined an era – from wartime childhood to global figurehead, from private moments to public duty. Discover the stories behind the Crown, from the young princess first meeting her future prince to jubilees that united millions, and from far-reaching tours aboard the royal yacht to quiet weekends at Balmoral. We revisit defining moments, from the day she became Queen to the devastating fire at Windsor, and reflect on the enduring traditions that she upheld, and the changes she embraced…

Becoming Queen 7 February 1952 The news of King George VI’s death at Sandringham aged just 56 shocked the nation. It took several hours for the news to reach his daughter, 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth, who was with her consort Philip at a remote safari lodge in Kenya as part of an official tour. They had spent a day watching baboons and warthogs in the watering hole below the treehouse hotel where they were staying, the princess recording the comings and goings on her cine-camera. But the arrival of such shattering news was to change her life for ever. Philip was the one to tell his wife that she was now Queen; the line “A young girl climbed into the tree as a princess and climbed down as a queen” passed…

WINDSOR CASTLE For many decades Windsor Castle was a weekend home for the Queen; within easy reach of London, it was a place to retreat from the demands of the capital. During the coronavirus pandemic and especially after the death of Prince Philip, the Queen chose increasingly to spend time at the more secluded Windsor Castle, and considered it her main home in her final years. The Queen spent much time at Windsor since her childhood, and it remains dotted with framed photos of family members. The magnificent castle overlooks the gardens of the East Lawn Terrace. The then Princess Elizabeth spent most of the war years at Windsor Castle and grew vegetables in the gardens. Also in the grounds is Y Bwthyn Bach (‘The Little House’), a miniature thatched…

Bunting was strung between lampposts, fluttering its intermittent silent applause, Union Jacks were waved with fervour, sandwiches packed with coronation chicken (or the closest substituted ingredients that could be found), thick slices of cake were served on tiered dishes, and tea was drunk by the pot-load. When Britain celebrated the crowning of its new queen in 1953, as well as the crowds who watched events unfold in London, where the newly crowned monarch emerged onto the famous Buckingham Palace balcony with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, her son Prince Charles, and her daughter Princess Anne, up and down the country jubilant street parties took place. Street parties are a traditional part of British culture. It’s thought the tradition first began in 1919 when a number of streets held ‘Peace…

The Golden Jubilee 4 June 2002 Queen Elizabeth II’s reign was gilded by landmarks and celebrations. In 2002, the Golden Jubilee marked half a century on the throne and saw the Queen and Prince Philip undertake extensive tours of the UK and the Commonwealth, from the Caribbean to the Isle of Skye. Celebrations culminated in a four-day Golden Jubilee weekend in London that included a classical concert in the garden of Buckingham Palace, musical performances by Sirs Elton John and Paul McCartney, a flypast by Concorde and the Red Arrows (the RAF’s display team), and a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral that the Queen attended in the Gold State Coach – an ornate horse-drawn carriage that was commissioned for King George III in 1760. Did you know? 160,000 cups…

“History is now and in England”, wrote the poet TS Eliot in ‘Little Gidding’, last of his Four Quartets. And who could not have felt it, watching the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in the hallowed 12th-century space of Westminster Abbey? The pomp, the pageantry, the livery and plumes, the heroic, scarlet-clad Grenadier pallbearers, the heralds and pursuivants, the trumpets, the lone bagpiper’s lament… For 96 minutes, on the minute, in the Elizabeth Tower, the tenor bell had tolled. Ninety-eight Royal Navy Ratings of the Sovereign’s Guard had pulled the gun carriage bearing the lead-lined coffin; 40 came behind. They were flanked by service equerries, members of the King’s Body Guards of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, the Yeomen of the Guard and Royal Company of Archers. Behind…

Wartime Princess Spring 1945 With the Second World War entering its final, uncertain phase, Princess Elizabeth exchanged the formality of court life for the khaki uniform of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. At just 18, the heir presumptive insisted on contributing to the war effort, becoming the first female member of the Royal Family to serve in the armed forces. Known as Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, she trained as a driver and mechanic, learning to dismantle and rebuild engines, change tyres and handle heavy military vehicles. Far from gilded palace life, the young princess spent her days in overalls, hands darkened with grease. For her, wartime service was both duty and liberation: a rare taste of independence. Years later, she would recall the camaraderie and sense of purpose with pride, having…

Meeting JFK 5 June 1961 As Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II was obligated to remain strictly neutral with respect to political matters: she was unable to vote in elections and displayed no political bias. She did, however, play an important ceremonial role in government, opening each new session of Parliament, granting Royal Assent to legislature, and hosting countless foreign leaders, too. One such meeting came in 1961, when US president John F Kennedy met Queen Elizabeth II for the first – and only – time. At a dinner in his honour at Buckingham Palace, JFK presented the Queen with a silver Tiffany & Co. frame containing a photo of himself that he signed “with appreciation and highest esteem”. The Queen gave JFK’s wife, Jackie, a tour of her artworks…

Annus Horribilis 20 November 1992 On a grey winter’s morning, a faulty spotlight in Queen Victoria’s Chapel at Windsor Castle set light to a curtain, quickly spread to St George’s Hall next door and the private apartments, and blazed, unstoppable, for 15 hours. Palace staff swiftly removed Van Dyck paintings, Sèvres porcelain and other treasures of the Royal Collection from the path of the flames, but the castle itself was badly damaged, with 115 rooms destroyed. For Queen Elizabeth, seeing her beloved weekend home ablaze was devastating. It was a heavy blow that came at the end of a difficult year: her daughter Anne’s divorce and the marriage break-ups of her sons Charles and Andrew had already taken their toll. Four days after the fire, in a speech at the…

Farewell to Diana 5 September 1997 The sudden death of Diana, Princess of Wales in a car crash on 31 August 1997 sent shockwaves through the nation. An outpouring of emotion and grief for the passing of the ‘Queen of Hearts’ followed, on a scale never seen before. When the news of the accident broke, Queen Elizabeth and the rest of the Royal Family were hundreds of miles away in Balmoral, the family retreat in Scotland. It has always been the royal way to keep a dignified silence with regard to family matters, but when a statement about the princess’s death was not forthcoming, public sentiment shifted against the Queen. Following an outcry, the family returned to London on 5 September, the day before the funeral, and the Queen made…

Any actor playing Queen Elizabeth II faces a daunting challenge. How could anyone get inside her head when it was her duty to be discreet about her thoughts? “Nobody knows her personally – that is the nature of her job and duty, to sort of keep herself under wraps,” said Claire Foy, who played the Queen in the first two seasons of The Crown (2016-17). “That is the amazing challenge as an actor.” Perhaps that is also what makes her character so appealing to watch, whether it’s in the Netflix drama, or in The Queen with Helen Mirren, or in The King’s Speech with Freya Wilson: as the audience, we long to know more about someone who seems so familiar and yet is so unknown. Foy found the Coronation scene…

It was the most British of days: a day of glory and spectacle, steeped in tradition and uniting the Commonwealth. And it rained. The day was 2 June 1953, Princess Elizabeth’s Coronation. Princess Elizabeth had acceded the throne on 6 February 1952, when her father King George VI passed away. The coronation, following a period of mourning and meticulous preparation, marked the occasion. It was to be a day of celebration and solemnity, the centrepiece a ceremony that had remained largely the same for 1,000 years. The Queen was 27 at the time. But she had been thinking about the day since she was 11. In May 1937, her father had asked her to record his coronation at Westminster Abbey so that she would appreciate it. “I thought it all…

“Such splendour I had never seen before and may never see again,” wrote Sir Norman Hartnell, favoured fashion designer of the late Queen Elizabeth II, of the 1953 Coronation in his autobiography, Silver and Gold. “The Abbey is wearing Coronation draperies of blue brocade. Along its aisle spreads a seamless carpet of cerulean blue, changing at the Theatre’s steps to a warm shade of pale honey … from my privileged seat in the Queen’s Box I can see every happening and every arrival. Soon I shall be seeing the dress I have made, being worn by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second for her Crowning.” And what a dress it was. Sweeping satin and with ornate golden beading, the cloth depicted, at the future Queen’s insistence, every emblem of the…

SANDRINGHAM COTTAGE, NORFOLK It’s well known that the Queen loved Christmas at Sandringham House, where the Royal Family would gather for their traditional celebrations. However, she more often stayed in five-bedroom Wood Farm, in a quiet corner of the Sandringham Estate. Much cosier than the main house, Queen Elizabeth enjoyed spending quiet days there with Prince Philip. When he retired in 2017, he moved into Wood Farm, and the Queen would helicopter in to spend time with him. VISIT Wood Farm is not open to the public, but you can rent other cottages on the royal estate, as well as visit Sandringham House and grounds sandringhamestate.co.uk WESTERN ISLES, SCOTLAND Queen Elizabeth II adored her summers at Balmoral – a place well away from formal duties, where she felt truly free.…

At the dawn of the new millennium, Queen Elizabeth II was already almost a decade older than the retirement age in Britain, yet she showed no signs of slowing down. On 31 December 1999, she attended a huge party at the Millennium Dome – the £758 million structure that has since been converted to The O2. The English National Opera performed, the Archbishop of Canterbury read prayers and £1 million of fireworks were launched over the River Thames. The Queen then joined hands with Tony Blair, the prime minister at the time, and sang Auld Lang Syne with the help of 10,000 revellers. (Blair was the first prime minister to have been born during her reign.) The Queen had become one of the most globally recognised figures at a time…

A lifetime of service 6 September 2022 In the early days of September 2022, as summer lingered over the Scottish Highlands, Queen Elizabeth II received Britain’s newly appointed prime minister at Balmoral. There, she formally invited Liz Truss to form a new government, continuing a constitutional ritual she had performed many times during her long reign. The photograph taken that day shows the Queen standing with a cane yet smiling, composed and attentive as ever; Truss later said that the Queen, though frail, was “absolutely determined to do her duty”. Behind their handshake was the dedicated service of a reign that had spanned generations and witnessed the steady turning of history. Two days later the life that had framed modern Britain quietly reached its end. For many the image became…