Queen Elizabeth II was the most famous person on Earth and first appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of three. Nowadays, only those over the age of 100 would have any chance of recalling a time when she was not a fixture of British identity. Her countenance has been reproduced - in photographs, on stamps, on the notes and coins of 30 different currencies. Until now the curious tactic employed by her biographers has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown overturns this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to one of the most guarded women who ever lived, examining The Queen in her time through a succession of interlocking prisms, with hilarious wit and sharp social commentary.