The Last Queen

"Clive Irving's immensely readable book brings real authority, context and personal insight to our understanding of the Queen ... The Last Queen is as entertaining as it is essential, and I read it with gusto." - Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles
"A brilliant and gripping analysis of the monarchy and the House of Windsor by the master of investigative journalism." - Robert Lacey, author of Battle of Brothers
"Sensational" - Daily Express
"Fascinating" - FT Magazine
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'The Firm', as the royal family styles itself, judged by real corporate standards, is a mess. Any consultants called in from outside to scrutinise its inner workings would find all the familiar flaws of a family business that has outgrown its original scale and design. There is no overall strategy, just a collection of warring divisions pursuing their own ends.
And this will be a profound problem when the Queen dies, because make no bones about it, the Queen's mortality determines the mortality of the monarchy. Under Charles III, the monarchy can never be the same; indeed, its very survival is in doubt.
In The Last Queen, pioneering investigative reporter Clive Irving paints a revelatory portrait of Elizabeth II's extraordinary reign, setting it within the dramatic transformation of Britain itself over the same period. Now expanded to include the death of Prince Philip, the fallout from Megxit and the banishment of Prince Andrew, this compelling account asks: how long will the institution survive beyond the second Elizabethan era?

Clive Irving has had a long and distinguished career in journalism. He was managing editor of the Sunday Times, where he created and led the Insight investigative team. He was director of current affairs programming for London Weekend Television, where he was executive producer of David Frost's programmes, and he also worked as a consulting editor for Newsday in New York. He was a founding editor of Condé Nast Traveller and he is a regular columnist for the Daily Beast. Most recently, he was a key contributor to the acclaimed two-part BBC documentary Margaret: The Rebel Royal, which was also broadcast on PBS in America.