essay film syllabus

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Syllabus: "The Essay Film: Adventures in Modern Cinema" (2020)

This course examines the international evolution of the "essay film" after World War II. The essay film is a highly self-conscious genre that combines fiction and documentary, incorporates the subjectivity of the filmmaker, relies crucially on montage, and addresses the viewer as a participant in the ongoing reflection. An "essay" in this context is less an argument than an investigation that proceeds in an exploratory fashion. The filmmaker's perspective is not just asserted but is self-critically questioned and tested through meditations on perception, memory, and identity. We will consider how this peculiar, still-evolving tradition of cinema deviates from conventional documentary. We will repeatedly examine the ways in which essay filmmakers have confronted horrors of history, urgent political matters, and the workings of audiovisual media themselves. We will study this wide-ranging genre through several approaches, including but not limited to historiography, affect theory, phenomenology, critical race theory, feminism, philosophies of selfhood, and more. We will spend the first full week examining the history of documentary in order to prime you to grasp how essay films operate. At all points, we will be careful not to impose an overly restrictive and schematic definition of the essay genre that robs the films themselves of their unruly and elusive qualities. The second half of the course will be devoted to challenging and revising theories of the essay film that guide our discussions through the first seven weeks. We will increasingly want to distinguish the essay film as a genre from “the essayistic” as a mode that can find expression within and across a range of genres, not just in personal documentaries but in narrative films as well.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Essay Film

Introduction, anthologies.

Bibliographies
Spectator Engagement
Personal Documentary
1940s Watershed Years
Chris Marker
Alain Resnais
Jean-Luc Godard
Harun Farocki
Latin American Cinema
Installation and Exhibition

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Essay Film by Yelizaveta Moss LAST REVIEWED: 12 April 2023 LAST MODIFIED: 24 March 2021 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0216

The term “essay film” has become increasingly used in film criticism to describe a self-reflective and self-referential documentary cinema that blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction. Scholars unanimously agree that the first published use of the term was by Richter in 1940. Also uncontested is that Andre Bazin, in 1958, was the first to analyze a film, which was Marker’s Letter from Siberia (1958), according to the essay form. The French New Wave created a popularization of short essay films, and German New Cinema saw a resurgence in essay films due to a broad interest in examining German history. But beyond these origins of the term, scholars deviate on what exactly constitutes an essay film and how to categorize essay films. Generally, scholars fall into two camps: those who find a literary genealogy to the essay film and those who find a documentary genealogy to the essay film. The most commonly cited essay filmmakers are French and German: Marker, Resnais, Godard, and Farocki. These filmmakers are singled out for their breadth of essay film projects, as opposed to filmmakers who have made an essay film but who specialize in other genres. Though essay films have been and are being produced outside of the West, scholarship specifically addressing essay films focuses largely on France and Germany, although Solanas and Getino’s theory of “Third Cinema” and approval of certain French essay films has produced some essay film scholarship on Latin America. But the gap in scholarship on global essay film remains, with hope of being bridged by some forthcoming work. Since the term “essay film” is used so sparingly for specific films and filmmakers, the scholarship on essay film tends to take the form of single articles or chapters in either film theory or documentary anthologies and journals. Some recent scholarship has pointed out the evolutionary quality of essay films, emphasizing their ability to change form and style as a response to conventional filmmaking practices. The most recent scholarship and conference papers on essay film have shifted from an emphasis on literary essay to an emphasis on technology, arguing that essay film has the potential in the 21st century to present technology as self-conscious and self-reflexive of its role in art.

Both anthologies dedicated entirely to essay film have been published in order to fill gaps in essay film scholarship. Biemann 2003 brings the discussion of essay film into the digital age by explicitly resisting traditional German and French film and literary theory. Papazian and Eades 2016 also resists European theory by explicitly showcasing work on postcolonial and transnational essay film.

Biemann, Ursula, ed. Stuff It: The Video Essay in the Digital Age . New York: Springer, 2003.

This anthology positions Marker’s Sans Soleil (1983) as the originator of the post-structuralist essay film. In opposition to German and French film and literary theory, Biemann discusses video essays with respect to non-linear and non-logical movement of thought and a range of new media in Internet, digital imaging, and art installation. In its resistance to the French/German theory influence on essay film, this anthology makes a concerted effort to include other theoretical influences, such as transnationalism, postcolonialism, and globalization.

Papazian, Elizabeth, and Caroline Eades, eds. The Essay Film: Dialogue, Politics, Utopia . London: Wallflower, 2016.

This forthcoming anthology bridges several gaps in 21st-century essay film scholarship: non-Western cinemas, popular cinema, and digital media.

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The Writing Place

Resources – writing about film: the critical essay, introduction to the topic.

Like it or not, studying film may very well be a part of the well-rounded education you receive here at Northwestern University. But how to go about writing such an essay? While film reviews and theoretical essays are part of Film Studies, the most common paper that students will face is: “the critical essay”

Fear not. Though its title combines a serious undertone that implies it is both a large chuck of your grade and also really hard and vague, this post will guide you on your way.

First, what is the critical essay? It may surprise you to note that it is much more than 35% of your grade. In actuality, the most common form of the cinematic critical essay is one in which the writer explores one or more aspects of a film and analyzes how they enhance the film’s meaning and/or artistry. This is very similar to English analysis papers. For example, The Scarlet Letter can be analyzed in terms of its motif of civilization versus the wilderness. In the novel, the town is representative of human civilization and authority while the forest represents natural authority (Sparknotes Editors, 2003). Likewise, the same motif illustrates Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life. The wilderness represents the way of nature while the family (or civilization) represents the way of grace. The crossing over of these settings enables the viewer to visualize the internal struggles of Malick’s characters as they seek higher meaning from God.

“Hmmm…” I can hear you wondering. “I already know how to do that! It’s all we did in high school English classes!” But here is where the cinematic essay diverges from the literary essay— the elements that we analyze. Films can be analyzed from traditional literary aspects such as themes, narrative, characters, and points of view but there are also uniquely cinematic aspects: mise-en-scene, the shot, aesthetic history and edited images.

Parts of a Critical Essay

Aspect 1: mise-en-scene.

Mise-en-scene refers to everything in a scene independent of the camera’s position, movement, and editing (Corrigan, 1998). This includes lighting, costumes, sets, the quality of the acting, etc. It is important to remember that every aspect of a scene was consciously chosen by the director and his or her team. Because movies often present themselves as instances of real life, this fact is easily forgotten and the artistic choices that the film crew made are overlooked.

In the following still from Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom (2012), one can analyze it in terms of mise-en-scene. One could note the arrangement of the props. In real life, it would be unlikely that rocks, sticks, and supplies would arrange themselves in an almost perfect circular fashion around the map. However, Anderson’s decision to arrange the props focus viewer’s attention on the map and highlight the adventure that the two children are about to go on in Moonrise Kingdom.

Click here for an example of an essay dealing with mise-en-scene.

Aspect 2: The Shot

The shot refers to the single image before the camera cuts to the next scene (Corrigan, 1998). These shots can include a lot of variety and movement. We can analyze the effect that shots have in terms of their photographic qualities such as tone, speed, and perspectives created, to name a few examples (Corrigan, 1998). A single shot is composed of multiple frames, or stills of the same scene. We can analyze the shot in terms of framing, i.e. what was actually decided to be included within the image and the location of stuff within the frame.

Watch the following shot (beginning at the 30 second mark) for an example: Click Here to Navigate to YouTube

In this shot from Dayton and Faris’ Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Dwayne has just found out he cannot join the air force. He had maintained a vow of silence to help him focus on getting admitted to the air force and breaks it from utter frustration. The shot’s stationary position as Dwayne runs screaming from his family helps highlight how the physical distance Dwayne puts between himself and his family reflects the emotional distance and frustration he feels at the moment.

Aspect 3: Edited Images

When one or more shots are joined together, they become edited (Corrigan, 1998). These usually have two main purposes. One is the logical development of the story. A shot in the morning connected with a shot in the afternoon connotes to the viewer that time has passed. Other times the editing of shots has artistic intent. For example, in a Chipotle commercial the first shot is of an industrial slaughterhouse. The next shot features animals grazing in a pasture. This is an artistic statement on the part of the advertising team to convey to Chipotle’s customers about the higher standard of care and ethics that they ensure their meat sources follow.

Edited images can also be analyzed from other aspects. For example, one could explain how meaning is created by the specific arrangement in shots, their collisions with each other, and the presence of visual motifs “echoing” through subsequent shots.

For instance, in the edited shots from Patar and Aubier’s movie A Town Called Panic (2009) the editing of the kitchen shot and the snow shot serves two purposes. One purpose is to further the logical chronological development of the story. The other purpose is to add humor. Because being asleep for an entire summer is impossibly long, it adds absurd humor.

Hopefully, the brief foray into the various cinematic aspects that one could examine was helpful. The world of film analysis is vast and wide, offering a fecund source for analytical and cinematic exploration and creation.

-Developed by Kyla Donato

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Prof. Alvin Kibel

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Studies in film, course meeting times.

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Course Description

The aim of this subject is to sharpen appreciation of film and literary fiction by studying the differences and similarities between the ways that filmed narratives and written narratives tell their stories. To this end we shall (1) imbibe and digest a modest amount of theory about narrative in general and how it works, and (2) view films and works of fiction in tandem. One way to proceed upon this enterprise is to study the filmed adaptations works of fiction, but we shall be taking another way. Each film will be paired with a work of literary merit which either deals with similar thematic materials and narrative situations, or else employs a technique of presentation that directly corresponds to a technique employed by the film with which it is paired. To illustrate this latter sort of relationship, we may note that Billy Wilders film, Sunset Boulevard , derives more from stories of vampires and possession than it does from social comedy, but both Wilder’s film and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice depend importantly on the presence of a discernable narrative voice (in the case of Wilder’s film, voice-over) whose capacities to comment on the action are superior to all the actors in the story and carries a large portion of the story’s meaning and effect. For this reason, although the stories told by Wilder’s film and Austen’s novel have little or nothing to do with one another, we might study them in tandem.

The films and literary fictions dealt with in this subject will be important each in their own right, and the point of our encounter with them will not only be to investigate narrative media but also to appreciate their artistic merits and the value of their conveyed view of life. The subject will pair, among others, works by Aeschylus and John Ford, Sophocles and Clint Eastwood, Shakespeare and Francis Coppolla, Henry James and Billy Wilder, Cervantes and Akira Kurosawa, Scott Fitzgerald and Orson Welles.

Course Format and Grading

The student should be advised that the amount of reading in this subject will not be remarkably less than the amount in other literary subjects and yet the subject will require viewing of films as well. The subject will meet twice a week for two one-and-a-half hour sessions and will screen a film (whenever a film is under discussion) on Monday evenings, starting at 7:00 PM. Each session will begin with a lecture of varying length, but will change over early into general discussion. Since active participation in discussion is essential to the life of the class, the force and cogency of students’ remarks will have a marked influence on grades. Much of the grade will also depend upon the quality of the three written assignments required by the course, which will be spaced fairly evenly over the term. The papers will total twenty pages in entirety, with two papers running to at least six pages each and a final paper running to at least eight pages. The papers will each deal with some aspect of the readings and discussion; topics may be invented by the students but an extensive list of suggested topics will be circulated two weeks in advance of each paper’s due date for those students who require it. The maximum number of students per section of this subject is 12. There will be no final examination.

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Sociology of Film

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Learning Goals and Assessments

Learning Goal(s):

* To familiarize oneself with and understand key developments in the field at the intersection of Sociology and Film.
* To use Sociology to shed light on various aspects of Film as a cultural product (sometimes from the production or reception sides; other times in terms of the films themselves or the historical and cultural context).
* To develop and sharpen one’s critical thinking skills both in oral and written communication. * To advance one’s ability to produce written texts of varying complexity and length. * To develop the ability to work in teams respectful of differences of ..

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The Queen Mother

The Official Biography

By William Shawcross

By william shawcross read by william shawcross, category: biography & memoir | european world history, category: biography & memoir | european world history | audiobooks.

Nov 16, 2010 | ISBN 9781400078349 | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 --> | ISBN 9781400078349 --> Buy

Oct 27, 2009 | ISBN 9780307273314 | ISBN 9780307273314 --> Buy

Oct 27, 2009 | 589 Minutes | ISBN 9780307576583 --> Buy

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Oct 27, 2009 | ISBN 9780307576583

589 Minutes

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About The Queen Mother

The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century. Consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, and grandmother of Prince Charles, Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon—the ninth of the Earl of Strathmore’s ten children—was born on August 4, 1900, and, certainly, no one could have imagined that her long life (she died in 2002) would come to reflect a changing nation over the course of an entire century. Vividly detailed, written with unrestricted access to her personal papers, letters, and diaries, this candid royal biography by William Shawcross is also a singular history of Britain in the twentieth century.

The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince Charles—and the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon—the ninth of the Earl of Strathmore’s ten children—was born on August 4, 1900, and, certainly, no one could have imagined that her long life (she died in 2002) would come to reflect a changing nation over the ourse of an entire century. Now, William Shawcross—given unrestricted access to the Queen Mother’s personal papers, letters, and diaries—gives us a portrait of unprecedented vividness and detail. Here is the girl who helped convalescing soldiers during the First World War . . . the young Duchess of York helping her reluctant husband assume the throne when his brother abdicated . . . the Queen refusing to take refuge from the bombing of London, risking her own life to instill courage and hope in others who were living through the Blitz . . . the dowager Queen—the last Edwardian, the charming survivor of a long-lost era—representing her nation at home and abroad . . . the matriarch of the Royal Family and “the nation’s best-loved grandmother.” A revelatory royal biography that is, as well, a singular history of Britain in the twentieth century.

About William Shawcross

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“Fascinating . . . Anglophiles and lovers of the crown will relish every morsel.” — USA Today “A totally absorbing and highly readable account of a remarkable life. . . . Shawcross’s book is genuinely revelatory.” — The Times (London) “Remarkable.” — Los Angeles Times “Lively and elegantly written. . . . A rich portrait.” — The Economist “Splendid. . . . An entertaining page-turner. . . . This masterly biography reveals a character whose charm was matched by courage, optimism, a strong sense of duty and a liking for fun. . . . A wonderful book, authoritative, frank and entertaining. It sets new standards for royal biography. . . . Anyone who finds royal biographies dull and dutiful is in for a surprise.” — The Daily Telegraph (London) “A portrait of a remarkable life lived in step with a century of sweeping change.” —Bloomberg News “A colossal book about a colossal life, a spectacular journey across the entire 20th Century through the eyes of a thoughtful woman who took the hand of a shy royal understudy and was propelled through modern history.” — Daily Mail (London) “A behind-the-scenes glimpse at the Royal Family. . . . Fascinating reading. . . . Shawcross has written a remarkable book.” — Tucson Citizen “[Written] with unprecedented access to the private papers of the queen mother. . . . Her life is seen here as a mirror of the 20th century.” — New York Post “Required Reading” “Shawcross has been given access to the Royal Archives and they have yielded a rich harvest. . . . [There is an] immense amount of new material here. . . . He is to be congratulated for selecting so many juicy tidbits.” —A. N. Wilson, Daily Mail (London) “Engaging. . . . Colorful. . . . Delightful as well as dignified.” — The Washington Times “The correspondence in [ The Queen Mother ] is illuminating for both royal watchers and historians. . . . Divulges the Queen Mother’s opinions on topics ranging from feminism to homeopathy.” —The Associated Press “Impressively researched. . . . Shawcross avoids the traps [of] hagiography. . . . He succeeds in the difficult task of keeping his subject resolutely centre-stage in an elegant account.” — The Independent (London) “Shawcross’s journalistic skills are evident in the innumerable dabs of pointilliste detail. . . . There are many unexpected vignettes. . . . He serves his subject well.” — Sunday Telegraph (London) “Offers new and fascinating insights into the woman behind the pearls and pastel dresses.” — Mail on Sunday

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Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography by William Shawcross

"I turned and looked and was aware of a small, charming rosy face around which twined and strayed rings and tendrils of silken hair, and a pair of dewy grey eyes… From that moment my small damp hand clutched at hers and I never left her side… Here was the true heroine." So Lord David Cecil recalled his first encounter with the young Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in the early 1900s. It is a beguiling impression of the playful, pretty, aristocratic deb who would transform herself – under the anvil of the abdication, the second world war and sheer, dogged longevity – into the "Queen Mum", a woman defined by her love of the steeplechase, gossipy lunches with Woodrow Wyatt, parties at the Royal Lodge, financial excess, and stoic endurance in the face of family tragedies. Nothing of this familiar picture of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother is dispelled by William Shawcross's indulgent, overlong and ultimately unsatisfying biography.

Five years ago in a lecture on "writing the modern British monarchy", the historian David Cannadine argued for investing the royal past "with real historical significance" by treating the subject "historically as well as biographically, thematically as well as chronologically, analytically as well as anecdotally". Shawcross cites the lecture but ducks the challenge. Hand-picked by his friend the Prince of Wales, he has produced an on-message account of the modern "welfare monarchy" as selfless, devoted, industrious and (as Prince Charles believes) intuitively in touch with the British people. For Shawcross, the Queen Mother is nothing less than a latter-day Esther – "a woman of faith and patriotism, whose piety and courage enabled her to save her people from destruction".

There is a rich canvas on which to paint this epic of duty and deliverance. The first 300 pages recall Bowes-Lyon's Edwardian upbringing (she was born in 1900, the ninth child of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore). It was a gilded life structured around house parties, London balls, shoots, hunts and summers in the Highlands. The only taste of hardship comes with the first world war which brought the arrival of wounded soldiers at the Strathmores' Scottish seat of Glamis and the death of her brother Fergus.

Then it is back to London to find a husband – at which point Shawcross's exclusive access to the Royal Archive proves his undoing as he recounts Bowes-Lyon's social whirl in painful detail. From a writer who once addressed the life of Dubcek and the fate of Cambodia, we now have passages such as the following: "She had been afraid that she would know no one, but the party included two of her dancing partners from her first ball in 1918, Count Willy de Grünne, a Belgian diplomat who danced 'too divinely', and Bruce Ogilvy, son of the Strathmores' neighbour in Scotland, Lady Airlie".

Eventually, the hand of history alights on Elizabeth in the form of the stuttering, knock-kneed, diffident Albert Windsor, second son of King George V. She turns him down twice before finally accepting her fate in January 1923. As Duchess of York and then Queen Elizabeth, she transformed her husband, the future King George VI, "from an unconfident young man into an active and effective working member of the Royal family. She [gave] him confidence and social grace".

Indeed, she was a little too forward for the self-pitying Duke of Windsor, who, post-abdication, ranted about Bertie's "ignominious capitulation to the wiles of his ambitious wife". But she could never, ever forgive her brother-in-law and "that woman", Wallis Simpson, for rupturing the family and ushering an unprepared Bertie into a job that killed him.

Nevertheless, Britain was blessed with having George VI and Queen Elizabeth rather than Edward VIII on the throne in 1939. This was their finest hour, and Shawcross's narrative comes alive as he recounts their relationship with Churchill and the Queen's inspiring leadership during the Blitz. The day war was declared, Elizabeth woke at 5.30am and "said to myself – we have only a few hours of peace left, and from then until 11 o'clock, every moment was agony. My last cup of tea in peace! My last bath at leisure."

When Buckingham Palace was bombed, the Queen was removing an eyelash from the King's eye. They "heard the unmistakable whirr-whirr of a German plane. We said, 'ah a German', and before anything else could be said, there was the noise of aircraft diving at great speed, and then the scream of a bomb."

During the war, King and Queen came to embody the national spirit. On the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VE day, the Windsor monarchy stood at its apogee. But within seven years George VI had succumbed to lung cancer, and the 25-year-old Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne. At 51, "the Queen Mother was now, in effect, the ancien régime".

Yet, remarkably, she then proceeded to carve out a new royal identity through racing, socialising, philanthropy, patronage and an impressive property portfolio. Shawcross chronicles the emergence of the "Queen Mum" effectively – her work with the army regiments, hospices and the Eton Beagles – but once again the detail is overwhelming. He also tries too hard to convince us of the Queen Mother's broad cultural hinterland, perhaps in an effort to counter her famous account (as revealed to AN Wilson) of how at a palace reading she and the princesses got the giggles when "this rather lugubrious man in a suit read a poem called The Desert". "Such a gloomy man [TS Eliot], looked as though he worked in a bank."

It was the Queen Mum's Martini-fuelled love of life and embodiment of sturdily old-fashioned attitudes that earned her the affection of millions. When she died in 2002, the public outpouring of respect was remarkable. But for a life to command such a big book, deeper historical themes need to be explored. Shawcross too often opts for anecdote rather than analysis. If you want to know who the anaesthetist was for the operation to remove the cataract in the Queen Mother's left eye – Mr Leonard Hargrove – this is the book for you. But if you are hoping for a richer insight into 20th-century Britain and the place of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and the House of Windsor within it, it will prove a punishing 1,000 pages.

Tristram Hunt's biography of Friedrich Engels is published by Allen Lane.

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Queen Mother

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Queen Elizabeth: The Official Biography Of The Queen Mother Hardcover – Oct. 6 2009

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on August 4, 1900. It might reasonably have been expected that she would lead a life of ease and privilege, but few could have imagined the profound effect she would have on Britain and its people. Her life spanned the whole of the 20th century, and this official biography tells not only her story but, through it, that of the country she loved so devotedly.

Drawing on her private correspondence and other unpublished material from the Royal Archives, William Shawcross vividly reveals the witty girl who endeared herself to soldiers convalescing at Glamis in the First World War; the assured young Duchess of York; the Queen, at last feeling able to look the east end in the face at the height of the Blitz; and, finally, the Queen Mother, representing the nation at home and abroad throughout her widowhood. It is the definitive portrait of a remarkable woman.

Print length 1000 pages
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Publication date Oct. 6 2009
Dimensions 16.51 x 5.77 x 23.83 cm
ISBN-10 000200805X
ISBN-13 978-0002008051

Queen Elizabeth: The Official Biography Of The Queen Mother

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Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (Oct. 6 2009)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 1000 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 000200805X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0002008051
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 kg
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.51 x 5.77 x 23.83 cm
#6,475 in English History (Books)

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Hardcover The Queen Mother: The Official Biography Book

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Absolutely fascinating = well written - cannot put it down , the unexpected queen, excellent historical biography, official but revealing: a century through one woman's life, elizabeth..100 years, just riveting read//the queen mother, william shawcross, popular categories.

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The Queen Mother: The Untold Story of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, Who Became Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

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512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

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Queen Mother Elizabeth

(1900-2002)

Who Was Queen Mother Elizabeth?

Queen Elizabeth was the Queen consort of King George VI until his death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. She was popular with the public, earning the nickname "Smiling Duchess" because of her consistent indomitable spirit. She was of great moral support to the British public during WWII.

The Queen Mother Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon on August 4, 1900. She was the ninth child and fourth daughter of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis, and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck. Elizabeth was schooled at home by governesses until the age of 8, when she began attending private schools in London. She passed the Oxford Local Examination with merit at age 13.

World War I started on Elizabeth’s 14th birthday and her family home, Glamis Castle, became a hospital. Though she was too young to serve as a nurse, she did assist her parents in their efforts to support the war. Four of her brothers served in the army and the oldest, Fergus, was killed in action at the Battle of Loos, in 1915.

From early childhood, Elizabeth and her siblings had been friends with the children of King George V. At 18, Lady Elizabeth was a strikingly attractive woman and many young men were drawn to her, including Albert, George V's second son (who would later become King George VI). Albert suffered from a relentless stammer, which added to his nervousness and insecurity. However, his unwavering adoration for Elizabeth won her over, and the two were married on April 26, 1923. They had two children, Elizabeth, born in 1926, and Margaret, born in 1930.

During the first decade of their marriage, Prince Albert and Princess Elizabeth had the chance to establish an intimate and happy family life. He began seeing an Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, who helped him with his stammer. Elizabeth was very supportive of his therapy, often participating in his sessions. Their relationship was depicted in the 2010 film, The King’s Speech .

In January 1936, King George V died, and Prince Edward (Duke of Windsor) ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. Edward was in love with Wallis Simpson, an American socialite and divorcee. Advised that the Parliament would not approve of him marrying a divorced woman, Edward abdicated the throne in December 1936. Subsequently, Albert became king—a position that he was reluctant to accept. He and Elizabeth were crowned on May 12, 1937, he as King George VI, and she as Queen Elizabeth, Queen consort.

Queen Elizabeth never expected to be queen, but once it happened, she dedicated her life and that of her family to serving the nation and supporting her husband in his arduous duties as sovereign. As war clouds began to form over Europe, the royal couple visited two important allies: France, in July 1938, and the United States, where they met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in June 1939. The trip proved to be very successful as the queen was immensely popular with Americans.

World War II

At the outbreak of World War II, some officials suggested that Elizabeth and her children evacuate to North America or Canada. To this, the queen replied, "The children will not leave unless I do. I shall not leave unless their father does, and the King will not leave the country in any circumstances whatsoever." Thus, the entire royal family shared the dangers and difficulties of war with the rest of the nation. When France fell to the Nazis in June, 1940, the queen sent a broadcast message to the women of France in their language, expressing her sorrow. Later in September, she was caught in a German bombing raid on Buckingham Palace, though she was unharmed. Throughout the war, she and the king toured hospitals and factories and visited with the troops, sometimes near the fighting. Queen Elizabeth also suffered personal sorrow when both her nephew and the king's youngest brother were killed during the war.

In 1948, the royal couple celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. In a moving speech, King George VI spoke passionately of his marriage to Elizabeth, expressing how much she inspired him. Their strong bond would be needed as the post-war years brought on dramatic changes for both Britain and the royal couple. After the war, Britain's economy was all but bankrupt. Many of its former colonies were striking out for independence. Great Britain went through several years of harsh austerity, rebuilding its economy and shedding its colonies to form the British Commonwealth.

The royal couple also faced personal challenges: In 1949, a blood clot was removed from the king's right leg. From then on, Queen Elizabeth and her daughters fulfilled many of the king's public engagements.

In September 1951, Georg VI was diagnosed with lung cancer. He and the queen were scheduled for a trip to Australia and New Zealand in January 1952, but Elizabeth chose to stay home with her husband instead; Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, went in their place. On February 6, 1952, King George VI died. Princess Elizabeth and her husband returned to Britain immediately after hearing the news, and the nation went into mourning.

Queen Elizabeth as the Queen Mother

Queen Elizabeth deeply loved her late husband, and for a time after his death, it looked as though she would become a recluse. But remembering her duty, she accepted the tragic loss with stoic courage and soon resumed her public duties. She would go on to become a wise and respected leader. After her daughter’s coronation as Queen Elizabeth II, she took on the name "Queen Mother" so as not to be confused with the new queen. Following her service as queen, the Queen Mother said, "My only wish is that I may be allowed to continue the work that [George VI and I] sought to do together."

Over the next three decades, the Queen Mother became the royal family’s matriarch, but was always careful not to overshadow her daughter's reign as queen. She continued to travel and make public appearances in the United Kingdom and throughout the Commonwealth, and she didn’t allow personal illness to slow her down: She dealt with an appendectomy, colon cancer and an operation to remove a fishbone caught in her throat, all while serving as matriarch. In addition to her public duties, she enjoyed growing camellias in her gardens, fishing and horseracing, owning several prize-winning steeplechase horses.

The Queen Mother Elizabeth was particularly close to her grandson, Prince Charles. Soon after he wed Princess Diana, the Queen Mother welcomed Diana and took her under her wing. Following the young couple's divorce, Elizabeth's friendship with Diana cooled considerably—perhaps due to her strong opposition to divorce or her close relationship with Charles. Privately, Elizabeth was very disturbed by the divorce, though publicly, she tried to remain above the rancor and embarrassment.

Final Years and Death

In her later years, the Queen Mother Elizabeth became known for her longevity. She celebrated her 90th birthday in August 1990, and continued to stay active with appearances at official celebrations. She also successfully underwent surgeries for a cataract, hip replacements and a broken collarbone. In December 2001, at age 101, the Queen Mother had a fall and fractured her pelvis. She recuperated well enough to attend a memorial service for her late husband in February of the following year. On February 9, 2002, her youngest daughter, Princess Margaret, died at the age of 71. Despite falling and injuring her arm a few days after Margaret's death, the Queen Mother managed to attend her daughter's funeral.

On March 30, 2002, the Queen Mother died in her sleep at her home, the Royal Lodge at Windsor Great Park, with her surviving daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, at her side. She was 101 years old and at the time of her death, held the record of being the longest living member of Britain's royal family until Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, surpassed her at 102.

QUICK FACTS

Name: Elizabeth
Birth Year: 1900
Birth date: August 4, 1900
Birth City: London
Birth Country: England
Gender: Female
Best Known For: Queen Elizabeth was the Queen consort of King George VI until his death in 1952. She is best known for her moral support to the British people during WWII and her longevity.
World Politics
Astrological Sign: Leo
Nacionalities
Scot (Scotland)
Death Year: 2002
Death date: March 30, 2002
Death City: London
Death Country: England

CITATION INFORMATION

Article Title: Queen Mother Elizabeth Biography
Author: Biography.com Editors
Website Name: The Biography.com website
Url: https://www.biography.com/royalty/queen-mother-elizabeth
Access Date:
Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
Last Updated: May 18, 2021
Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
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Kate Middleton’s cancer announcement shows new transparency: Other royals who battled the disease

Kate Middleton revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer in a video message that stunned the world.

On Friday, the 42-year-old Princess of Wales announced she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy treatment after a planned abdominal surgery showed "cancer had been present." Middleton did not provide further details on the type of cancer or the extent in her video.

The royal's health update comes after months of speculation regarding her health and whereabouts. In January, Buckingham Palace announced she had been admitted to a hospital for a planned abdominal surgery Jan. 17.

Middleton spent almost two weeks in the hospital following her surgery. In her video message, Middleton explained that her condition was thought to be "noncancerous" at the time.

KATE MIDDLETON ANNOUNCES SHE HAS CANCER, UNDERGOING CHEMOTHERAPY TREATMENT

The princess made her last public appearance on Dec. 25, and she has only been spotted a handful of times since.

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A photo of Middleton with her three children released by Kensington Palace on Mother's Day only amplified concerns about her well-being after it was revealed the image had been significantly altered.

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Middleton is not the first royal to be diagnosed with cancer but the public announcement of her condition and treatment signals a new era of transparency for the monarchy.

While, in the past, royal family members tried to keep their health struggles out of the public eye, King Charles III and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, both recently revealed their own cancer diagnoses.

Here's a look at other members of the royal family who have publicly and privately battled the disease.

King Charles III revealed in February he had been diagnosed with cancer after undergoing surgery to treat an enlarged prostate the prior month.

"During The King’s recent hospital procedure for benign prostate enlargement, a separate issue of concern was noted," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. "Subsequent diagnostic tests have identified a form of cancer."

Charles, 75, was "advised by doctors to postpone public-facing duties" while undergoing a series of "regular treatments," a statement from the palace said. It's unclear what cancer diagnosis he received.

KING CHARLES RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL FOLLOWING PROSTATE TREATMENT

"Throughout this period, His Majesty will continue to undertake State business and official paperwork as usual," the statement added.

"The King is grateful to his medical team for their swift intervention, which was made possible thanks to his recent hospital procedure. He remains wholly positive about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible."

The announcement stated that Charles chose to share his diagnosis to "prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer ."

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Buckingham Palace had announced that Charles was undergoing "corrective procedure" for his enlarged prostate on Jan. 17, the same day his daughter-in-law Middleton was admitted to the hospital for abdominal surgery.

Charles and Kate both received treatment at the London Clinic, and the monarch reportedly visited her ahead of his procedure. Charles was discharged from the hospital after a three-day stay on Jan. 29, the same day that Middleton was released.

After Middleton's announcement, Buckingham Palace released a statement of support from Charles.

Charles said he is "so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did." The statement added that he has "remained in the closest contact with his beloved daughter-in-law throughout the past weeks."

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, announced in January that she received her second cancer diagnosis within a year.

The 64-year-old revealed she had been diagnosed with skin cancer after announcing her breast cancer diagnosis in June 2023.

"I have been taking some time to myself as I have been diagnosed with malignant melanoma , a form of skin cancer, my second cancer diagnosis within a year after I was diagnosed with breast cancer this summer and underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. It was thanks to the great vigilance of my dermatologist that the melanoma was detected when it was," she wrote in a lengthy post to Instagram.

"Naturally another cancer diagnosis has been a shock but I’m in good spirits and grateful for the many messages of love and support," she said, before cautioning followers to stay vigilant about their health. "I believe my experience underlines the importance of checking the size, shape, color and texture and emergence of new moles that can be a sign of melanoma and urge anyone who is reading this to be diligent.

"I am incredibly thankful to the medical teams that have supported me through both of these experiences with cancer and to the MAYRLIFE Clinic for taking gentle care of me in the past weeks, allowing me time for recuperation. I am resting with family at home now, feeling blessed to have their love and support."

SARAH FERGUSON SHARES SURPRISING NICKNAMES FOR HER BREASTS AFTER UNDERGOING MASTECTOMY

Queen Elizabeth II privately battled myeloma, a painful bone marrow cancer, during the last years of her life, according to "Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait," a 2022 biography by Gyles Brandreth.

"I had heard that the Queen had a form of myeloma — bone marrow cancer — which would explain her tiredness and weight loss and those ‘mobility issues’ we were often told about during the last year or so of her life," Brandreth wrote in the book.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II: 10 FACTS AND STANDOUT MOMENTS FROM THE BRITISH MONARCH'S LIFE

Hilary Fordwich, a royal expert based in Maryland, noted that Queen Elizabeth loved to ride horses and did so up to 93 years of age.

"With her bone marrow cancer, she began to suffer mobility issues, which curtailed her riding," Fordwich told Fox News Digital.

The queen never publicly revealed a cancer diagnosis. She died in September 2022 at the age of 96. On her death certificate, her cause of death was listed as old age.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, battled two types of cancer over her lifetime.

Elizabeth was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from Dec. 11, 1936, until Feb. 6, 1952

In December 1966, Elizabeth was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent surgery to remove a tumor, according to biographer William Shawcross' 2009 book, "The Queen Mother: The Official Biography."

At the time, Clarence House announced that she underwent abdominal surgery to relieve a partial obstruction at King Edward VII Hospital.

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S DOCTORS ‘CONCERNED FOR HER MAJESTY’S HEALTH,' RECOMMEND MEDICAL SUPERVISION

In July 1984, the queen received a breast cancer diagnosis and underwent a lumpectomy, per Shawcross' biography.

Neither diagnosis was revealed to the public during her lifetime. Elizabeth died of natural causes on March 30, 2002, at the age of 101.

King George VI, who ascended to throne on Dec. 11, 1936 after his brother King Edward VIII's abdication, was diagnosed with lung cancer in September 1951.

"He was a chain smoker and had been advised by his doctors to smoke to help 'smooth his lungs' given his stutter," Fordwich told Fox News Digital.

However, the palace kept George's cancer diagnosis a secret from the public as well as the king himself, according to The Telegraph.

George underwent surgery to remove his left lung, which the palace claimed was due to "structural abnormalities."

After an initial period of recovery, the king’s health declined, and he died Feb. 6, 1952, at the age of 56. At the time, his cause of death was cited as coronary thrombosis due to his vascular disease. However, there has been speculation that he succumbed to cancer.

The Duke of Windsor, who served as King Edward VIII for only a year before abdicating the throne in December 1936 to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1971.

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The Duke, a longtime smoker, reportedly received cobalt therapy after his diagnosis. Edward died in Paris May 28, 1972, at the age of 77.

"He died peacefully," a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said at the time, per Town & Country.

King Edward VII, who reigned from Jan. 22, 1901, until his death in 1910, was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer , in 1907.

His cancer, which was found on the skin next to his nose, was reportedly cured with radium," according to Jane Ridley's 2021 biography "Bertie: A Life of Edward VII."

VACCINE FOR DEADLY SKIN CANCER SHOWS ‘GROUNDBREAKING’ RESULTS IN CLINICAL TRIAL

Edward suffered additional health issues later in life and died at the age of 68 on May 6, 1910, following a series of heart attacks.

The daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Princess Victoria, who was born Nov. 21, 1840, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1898.

The mother of eight died of the disease on Aug. 5, 1901, at the age of 60.

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Fox News Digital's Melissa Rudy, Caroline Thayer, Lauryn Overhultz and Tracy Wright contributed to this report.

Original article source: Kate Middleton’s cancer announcement shows new transparency: Other royals who battled the disease

Kate Middleton revealed she was diagnosed with cancer amid a new era of royal transparency. The Prince and Princess of Wales Instagram/Getty

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Laurent de Brunhoff, Artist Who Made Babar Famous, Dies at 98

After his father, who created the character, died, he continued the series of books about a modest elephant and his escapades in Paris for seven decades.

Laurent de Brunhoff sitting on the front stoop of a white house wearing jeans and a dress shirt while holding a pencil above a sketch pad. A small Babar doll, dressed in green, is sitting next to him.

By Penelope Green

Laurent de Brunhoff, the French artist who nurtured his father’s creation, a beloved, very Gallic and very civilized elephant named Babar, for nearly seven decades — sending him, among other places, into a haunted castle, to New York City and into outer space — died on Friday at his home in Key West, Fla. He was 98.

The cause was complications of a stroke, said his wife, Phyllis Rose.

Babar was born one night in 1930 in a leafy Paris suburb. Laurent, then 5, and his brother, Mathieu, 4, were having trouble sleeping. Their mother, Cécile de Brunhoff , a pianist and music teacher, began to spin a tale about an orphaned baby elephant who flees the jungle and runs to Paris, which is conveniently located nearby.

The boys were enthralled by the story, and in the morning they raced off to tell their father, Jean de Brunhoff, an artist; he embraced the tale and began to sketch the little elephant, whom he named Babar, and flesh out his adventures.

In Paris, Jean imagined, Babar is rescued by a rich woman — simply referred to as the Old Lady — who introduces him to all sorts of modern delights. Armed with the Old Lady’s purse, Babar visits a department store, where he rides the elevator, irritating the operator: “This is not a toy, Mr. Elephant.” He buys a suit in “a becoming shade of green” and, though the year is 1930, a pair of spats, the natty, gaitered footwear of a 19th-century gentleman.

He drives the Old Lady’s automobile, enjoys a bubble bath and receives lessons in arithmetic and other subjects. But he misses his old life and weeps for his mother, and when his young cousins Arthur and Celeste track him down, he returns to the jungle with them — but not before outfitting Arthur and Celeste in fine clothes of their own.

Back home, the old king of the elephants has died after eating a bad mushroom (these things tended to happen) and the rest of the elephants, impressed by Babar’s modernity — his fine green suit, his car and his education — make him their new king. Babar asks Celeste to be his queen.

“Histoire de Babar” (“The Story of Babar”), an oversize, gorgeously illustrated picture book in which Babar’s escapade is recounted in Jean de Brunhoff’s looping script, was published in 1931. Six more picture books followed before Jean died of tuberculosis in 1937, when he was 37 and Laurent was just 12.

The last two books were only partly colored at Jean’s death, and Laurent finished the job. Like his father, Laurent trained to be a painter, working in oils and exhibiting his abstract works at a Paris gallery. But when he turned 21, he decided to carry on the adventures of Babar.

“If I became a writer and artist of children’s books,” Mr. de Brunhoff wrote in 1987 for the catalog that accompanied a show of his work at the Mary Ryan Gallery in Manhattan , “it was not because I had in mind to create children’s books; I wanted Babar to live on (or, as some will say, my father to live on). I wanted to stay in his country, the elephant world, which is both a utopia and a gentle satire on the society of men.”

His first effort, “Babar’s Cousin: That Rascal Arthur,” was published in 1946. Mr. de Brunhoff would go on to write and illustrate more than 45 more Babar books. For the first few years, many readers didn’t realize that he was not the original author, so completely had he realized Babar’s world and his essence — his quiet morality and equanimity.

“Babar, c’est moi,” Mr. de Brunhoff often said. By all accounts, artist and elephant shared the same Gallic urbanity and optimistic outlook.

By the 1960s, Babar was a very famous elephant indeed.

Charles de Gaulle was a fan. The Babar books, he said, promoted “a certain idea of France.” So was Maurice Sendak , though Mr. Sendak said that for years he was traumatized by Babar’s origin story: the brutal murder of his mother by a hunter.

“That sublimely happy babyhood lost, after only two full pages,” Mr. Sendak wrote in the introduction to “Babar’s Family Album” (1981), a reissue of six titles, including Jean’s original.

Mr. Sendak and Mr. de Brunhoff became friends, however, and the latter encouraged the former, as Mr. Sendak wrote, to ditch his “frantic Freudian dig.”

“I calmed him down,” Mr. de Brunhoff told The Los Angeles Times in 1989. “I said bluntly that the mother died to leave the little hero to struggle with life on his own.”

There were other critiques. Many charged that Babar was an avatar of sexism, colonialism, capitalism and racism. Two early works were particularly offensive: Jean de Brunhoff’s “The Travels of Babar” (1934) and Laurent de Brunhoff’s “Babar’s Picnic” (1949) both depicted “savages” drawn in the cruel style of their times, as cartoon images of Africans. In the late 1960s, when Toni Morrison , then a young editor at Random House, Babar’s publisher, objected to the imagery in “Babar’s Picnic,” Mr. de Brunhoff asked that it be taken out of print. And he made sure to excise the racist scenes from “The Travels of Babar” when that title was included in “Babar’s Family Album.”

“Should We Burn Babar?” the author and educator Herbert Kohl wondered in the title of a 1995 book subtitled “Essays on Children’s Literature and the Power of Stories.” Well, no, he concluded, but he nonetheless argued that Babar’s stories were elitist for glorifying capitalism and unearned wealth. Where did the Old Lady get her money? Mr. Kohl asked, annoyed by the implication “that it is perfectly normal and in fact delightful that some people have wealth they do not have to work for.”

Nonsense, Mr. de Brunhoff told The Los Angeles Times, in response to an earlier Marxist analysis of his stories , “These are stories, not social theory.”

They were also works of art, and critics compared Mr. de Brunhoff’s use of color and his naïve style to painters like Henri Rousseau.

“With Bemelmans’s ‘Madeline’ and Sendak’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’” Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker wrote in 2008 , when the Morgan Library exhibited the sketches and maquettes of both Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff’s early efforts, “the Babar books have become part of the common language of childhood, the library of the early mind.”

Like Babar, Laurent de Brunhoff was born in Paris — on Aug. 30, 1925, into a family of artists and publishers. His father’s siblings were all in the magazine business. His brothers, Michel and Jacques, were the editors, respectively, of French Vogue and Le Décor d’Aujourd’hui, a magazine of art and design; his sister, Cosette, a photographer, was married to Lucien Vogel, the publisher of Le Jardin des Modes, a fashion magazine, and it was under that magazine’s imprint that Babar was first published.

Laurent worked differently from his father, who conceived his stories as a whole — narration and pictures in tandem. (Jean had also wanted to include his wife as his co-author, but she adamantly refused. “My mother was absolutely against it,” Laurent said, “because she thought that even if she helped the idea, the whole creation was my father’s.”)

For Laurent, the idea and the images came first — what if Babar were abducted by aliens, or practiced yoga? — and he then began to sketch and paint what that might look like. When he married Ms. Rose, his second wife and a professor emerita of English at Wesleyan University, they often collaborated on the text.

The couple met at a party in Paris in the mid-1980s — Ms. Rose was working on a biography of Josephine Baker — and fell hard for each other. “After dinner we sat down on the sofa together,” Mr. de Brunhoff told an interviewer in 2015. “She said, ‘I love your work.’ I said, ‘I don’t know your work, but I love your eyes.’ And that was the start of it.”

Mr. de Brunhoff joined Ms. Rose in Middletown, Conn., in 1985, and brought Babar with him. The couple married in 1990 and later lived in New York City and Key West.

In 1987, Mr. de Brunhoff sold the rights to license his elephant to a businessman and artist named Clifford Ross, who then sold those rights to a Canadian company, Nelvana Ltd., with the understanding that Mr. Ross would continue to be involved in the conception of future products.

What followed was what The New York Times described as “an elephantine array” of Babar-abilia — including Babar pajamas and slippers, wallpaper and wrapping paper, perfume, fruit drinks, backpacks, blankets and bibs. There was “Babar: The Movie” (1989), which critics said was boring and violent, and, that same year, a television series, which critics said was less boring and less violent.

And then there was litigation. Mr. Ross found Nelvana’s creations tacky and degrading to Babar’s wholesome image, as he charged in a lawsuit. Mr. de Brunhoff, with typical equanimity, kept out of the fray.

“Celesteville is a sort of utopian city, a place where there’s no robbery or crime, where everyone has a nice relationship with the other, so there’s really no need for lawyers there,” Mr. de Brunhoff told The New York Times .

Federal District Court Judge Kenneth Conboy agreed.

“In the world of Babar, all colors are pastel, all rainstorms are brief, and all foes are more or less benign,” he wrote in his decision, ruling that Nelvana had unfairly excluded Mr. Ross in the licensing. “The story lines celebrate the persistence of goodness, work, patience and perseverance in the face of ignorance, discouragement, indolence and misfortune. Would that the values of Babar’s world were evident in the papers filed in this lawsuit.”

In addition to his wife, Mr. de Brunhoff is survived by his brothers, Mathieu and Thierry; a daughter, Anne de Brunhoff, and son, Antoine de Brunhoff, from his first marriage, to Marie-Claude Bloch, which ended in divorce; a stepson, Ted Rose; and several grandchildren.

“Babar and I both enjoy a friendly family life,” Mr. de Brunhoff wrote in 1987. “We take the same care to avoid over-dramatization of the events or situations that do arise. If we take the correct, efficient steps, we both believe that a happy end will come. When writing a book, my intention is to entertain, not give a ‘message.’ But still one can, of course, say there is a message in the Babar books, a message of nonviolence.”

Babar’s stories have been translated into 18 languages, including Japanese and Hebrew, and have sold many millions of copies. Mr. de Brunhoff’s last book, “Babar’s Guide to Paris,” was published in 2017.

“Laurent’s idea of a good story,” Ms. Rose said by phone, “is this: Something bad happens, nobody panics, and it all turns out fine.”

An earlier version of this obituary misstated the given name of one of Mr. de Brunhoff’s uncles, who was the editor of the magazine Le Décor d’Aujourd’hui. He was Jacques, not Maurice. It also misstated the title of Lucien Vogel, who was married to Mr. de Brunhoff’s aunt, Cosette. He was the publisher of Le Jardin des Modes, a fashion magazine, not the director.

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Paperback - November 16, 2010. by William Shawcross (Author) 4.5 568 ratings. See all formats and editions. The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century. Consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, and grandmother of Prince Charles, Elizabeth ...

4.00. 2,167 ratings257 reviews. The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince Charles—and the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon—the ninth of the Earl of Strathmore's ten ...

About The Queen Mother. The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century. Consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, and grandmother of Prince Charles, Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon—the ninth of the Earl of Strathmore's ten children—was born on August 4, 1900, and, certainly, no one ...

There is a rich canvas on which to paint this epic of duty and deliverance. The first 300 pages recall Bowes-Lyon's Edwardian upbringing (she was born in 1900, the ninth child of the Earl and ...

Buy Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography Main Market by Shawcross, William (ISBN: 9780330434300) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

This book portrays the Queen Mother much as she herself would wish to be portrayed. Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was born in August, 1900, the daughter of a wealthy family of Scots and English nobility. The ninth of ten children, she had a happy childhood unburdened by too much education, did nursing in World War I, and eventually made her debut ...

Written with complete access to the Queen Mother's personal letters and diaries, William Shawcross's riveting biography is the truly definitive account of this remarkable woman, whose life spanned the twentieth century. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4 August 1900.

This sentiment, cited in William Shawcross's Brobdingnagian official biography, "The Queen Mother," is what many readers may feel when they get to Chapter 10 of this 1,096-page book.

LADY COLIN CAMPBELL, who is connected to the royal family through mutual ancestors and marriage, is the author of the New York Times bestseller Diana in Private—which was the first book to reveal the truth behind the "fairytale" marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales—as well as The Royal Marriages: What Really Goes on in the Private World of the Queen and Her Family, and The Real Diana.

Early life Elizabeth in 1909. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis (later the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland), and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck.Her mother was descended from British prime minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, and Governor ...

"The Queen Mother" is a biography of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, mother of Elizabeth II. The book is largely a loving tribute to Elizabeth as a woman oriented mostly around family, faith, and country. This isn't a particularly critical look at Elizabeth. We find out she came out of World War II urging her husband to be more openly Christian in his ...

Buy a cheap copy of Queen Elizabeth: The Queen Mother book by William Shawcross. The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince... Free Shipping on all orders over $15.

It made it sound like a biography of The Queen Mother. And I suppose technically it is, but in reality it is a horrifying and boring book. ... An interesting read, although once you realize the author sought to reveal the dark side of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, the book becomes rather monchromatic. The book appears to be well-documented, and ...

Published 09 July 2003. THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN. The Queen has entrusted the writing of the official biography of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother to Mr William Shawcross. Mr Shawcross will be given full access to Queen Elizabeth's personal papers, which are held in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.

The Queen Mother Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon on August 4, 1900. She was the ninth child and fourth daughter of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis, and his wife, Cecilia ...

In December 1966, Elizabeth was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent surgery to remove a tumor, according to biographer William Shawcross' 2009 book, "The Queen Mother: The Official Biography."

Laurent de Brunhoff, the French artist who nurtured his father's creation, a beloved, very Gallic and very civilized elephant named Babar, for nearly seven decades — sending him, among other ...

Beyoncé ‘Renaissance’ inspired course syllabus to be sent to nearly 30 HBCUs

T he Human Rights Campaign’s HBCU program has released a syllabus inspired by Beyoncé’s 2022 Renaissance , per a detailed report by Billboard. Renaissance: A Queer Syllabus , was released on Monday and is described by Billboard as “a sprawling collection of academic articles, essays, films and other pieces of media rooted in Black queer and feminist studies and directly inspired by each track on Queen Bey’s Billboard 200-topping dance album”. The syllabus revolves around six themes, spanning from “intersectionality and inclusivity” to “social justice and activism”, drawing inspiration from popular songs on the album for lesson content.

The course syllabus was created by Justin Calhoun, Leslie Hall, and Chauna Lawson, members of the Human Rights Campaign’s HBCU program. According to the report, the syllabus will be distributed to around 30 historically Black colleges and universities, such as Howard University, North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University, and Shaw University.

The Human Rights Campaign did not work with Beyoncé nor Parkwood Entertainment to make the syllabus but they describe putting the document together as a seamless process according to Hall.

“We knew amongst the team which authors and which folks to go to for certain things, I don’t think any of us did many Google searches,” said Hall. We knew where to go to connect the right [resources] to one of her songs [and] build a course out of it. It is really a testament to well-read, well-learned people. I feel obligated to say that because we don’t talk about ourselves like that. We’re smart. It would take folks with Howard degrees to put something like this together.”

The syllabus on page 7 includes a note for universities that have received the document.

“ We are thrilled to introduce the Queer Renaissance Syllabus, an educational resource designed to celebrate the beauty, brilliance, and resilience of the LGBTQ+ community. As the HBCU program at the Human Rights Campaign, we are excited to share this resource with you and invite you to share it with your university community.

Inspired by the award-winning album Renaissance by Beyoncé and the resilience of the LGBTQ+ community, this syllabus aims to amplify diverse voices, empower communities pushed to the margins, and promote inclusivity and a sense of belonging within higher education. In light of the recent declaration of a national state of emergency for members of the LGBTQ+ community by the Human Rights Campaign, this syllabus becomes even more significant. It serves as a powerful tool to navigate these challenging times and foster a deeper understanding of the experiences and contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals.

At the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, we strive to achieve LGBTQ+ equality by inspiring and engaging individuals and communities. Through our HBCU program, we work to empower leaders, eliminate stigma, and enrich the college experience for LGBTQ+ students and the entire student body.

Thank you for your commitment to education, equality, and social progress. ”

Beyoncé’s HBCU Advocacy

While this syllabus is independent of Beyoncé or Parkwood Entertainment, the music icon consistently leverages her resources and platform to highlight and support HBCUs. Particularly, she showcased HBCU culture and history in her 2019 “Homecoming” Netflix documentary and Coachella performance. She expressed her desire to attend an HBCU during an interview within the two-hour film.

“I always dreamed of going to an HBCU. My college was Destiny’s Child. My college was traveling around the world, and life was my teacher.”

In August, Beyoncé teamed up with Tiffany & Co. to launch a collection inspired by her Renaissance tour in support of HBCU scholarships. The collection includes designs Beyoncé wore during the tour, ranging in price from $275 to $700. All proceeds from the collection were dedicated to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s “About Love” scholarship. This scholarship, a collaboration between Tiffany & Co., Beyoncé’s BeyGood Foundation, and Jay-Z’s Shawn Carter Foundation, provides educational funding for students in fine arts, history, and communications at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, Norfolk State University, Bennett College, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and Central State University.

The scholarship, founded in 2021, received $2 million in funding from Tiffany & Co. for chosen students. It aims to support students requiring emergency aid to pursue their education, with the scholarship amount adjusted according to students’ financial needs.

Like ClutchPoints’ content? Be sure to follow us.

The post Beyoncé ‘Renaissance’ inspired course syllabus to be sent to nearly 30 HBCUs appeared first on ClutchPoints .

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