Biography: royalty Books

1011 products


  • The Queen: 1926–2022

    Michael O'Mara Books Ltd The Queen: 1926–2022

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this entertaining and insightful biography, award-winning writer Andrew Morton, author of Diana, Her True Story and Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters, takes you behind the scenes to uncover the woman and her world.For years she prayed for her mother to give birth to a son. She longed to be spared her destiny as Britain’s future Queen. Her dream was to live in the country surrounded by children, dogs and horses.But Elizabeth did her duty, the young princess pledging before her people that she would dedicate her whole life to the service of Britain and the Commonwealth. She hoped that that day would be a long way off. It was not to be. Only twenty-five when she became Queen after the premature death of her father, King George Vl, Elizabeth became the stuff of superlatives: the longest reigning, most travelled and, for a shy woman, the Queen who shook more hands and made more small talk than any other monarch in history. She was seen and believed by millions, either in person, on television or film.Elizabeth was set firmly on the road to becoming sovereign because of the D word – divorce. In 1936, her uncle David, King Edward VIII, wanted to marry a twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson. When he couldn’t, he abdicated. After that national trauma, divorce and the fall-out from divorce shaped her reign. She witnessed her sister Margaret, three of her children and several grandchildren divorce. And she lived long enough to see the wheel turn full circle, watching as another American divorcee, Meghan Markle, walked down the aisle with her grandson Prince Harry.While her reign was defined by divorce, her private life was moulded by an irascible husband, an extravagant mother and a querulous eldest son. In the winter of her reign she refereed a war between two of her grandsons, brothers William and Harry who were once inseparable friends. As the first monarch to reign for seventy years, she became, following a once in a lifetime pandemic, the reassuring face of hope and optimism, the grandmother to the nation.Trade ReviewA clear... admirable account of the Queen’s life -- The TelegraphAndrew Morton has thrown up some tasty morsels -- The TimesThe man who told the world the Princess's story charts the mental anguish of the monarch as her sons' marriages disintegrated -- Daily MailThoroughly researched and well written, the most comprehensive account of the complex relationship between the Queen and Princess Margaret to date. Fascinating and enjoyable. -- Sarah Bradford on 'Elizabeth & Margaret' by Andrew MortonThe dynamic between the two royal sisters is endlessly fascinating when presented by Andrew Morton. Informative, insightful, and never a dull page. Morton at his forensic best. -- Ingrid Seward on 'Elizabeth & Margaret' by Andrew MortonMorton provides rich context on the coldness of royal life ... Margaret’s tale is revelatory. -- New York Times on 'Elizabeth & Margaret' by Andrew MortonHighly readable and compelling. -- Daily Telegraph on 'Meghan: A Hollywood Princess' by Andrew MortonRoyal biographer Andrew Morton explores the character behind the couture clothes ... the result is a portrait of an enigmatic and difficult woman. -- Daily Mail on 'Wallis in Love: The Untold True Passion of the Duchess of Windsor' by Andrew Morton

    3 in stock

    £16.00

  • Henry VIII: King and Court

    Batsford Ltd Henry VIII: King and Court

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis beautifully illustrated Pitkin guide looks beneath the glittering surface of the Henry VIII's court, peeping behind the scenes of Court splendour at everyday life and at every level of the royal household. A must for every resident and visitor to the UK.Table of ContentsThe King's House, The Royal Household, Royal Pastimes, A Devout King, Food Fit for a King, The Queen's Chamber, The Travelling Court, Scandals at Court, European Influences, The King's Legend.

    1 in stock

    £7.60

  • Royal Secrets and Scandals

    Batsford Ltd Royal Secrets and Scandals

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisWhat constituted a secret or a scandal in times gone by? This entertaining title in this new series gives an overview of the times and attitudes to ‘secrets’, and what was meant by a ‘scandal’. This book uncovers revelations of royal bedchambers, courts, spies and plots, financial scandals, dynastic tangles, and the exploits of both regal villains and so-called saints. From the rule of absolutist kings to the more prudish Victorians, scandals can be linked to many a royal personage with often dramatic impacts on reigns and history. Exposing the secrets of both the private and public lives of these past rulers, Royal Secrets and Scandals guarantees to amuse and surprise.

    1 in stock

    £7.60

  • Mary Queen of Scots

    Batsford Ltd Mary Queen of Scots

    Book SynopsisMary Queen of Scots is perhaps the most romantic and tragic figure in British history. Was her tragic life a product of bad luck, bad advice, or ambition? Destined to marry the Dauphin of France and reign as his queen, his early death changed Mary's life. As claimant then in France, England and Scotland, there are many mysteries and unanswered questions in the tragedies that befell her. This fascinating book looks at Mary Queen of Scot's life and death. Angela Royston examines Mary's early life as the Infant Queen before her childhood in France, moving onto her time in Scotland and her scandalous marriage to Lord Darnley, and Mary's imprisonment and execution after being charged with treason. A must for any student of history or visitor to England, this revised edition of a Pitkin classic is filled with colour photographs and reproductions of historical artworks and artefacts to illuminate the life of Mary Queen of Scots.

    £8.29

  • Diana: The Life and Legacy of the People's

    Batsford Ltd Diana: The Life and Legacy of the People's

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFully illustrated with beautiful photographs, this special commemorative book by royal biographer Brian Hoey – who had the privilege of meeting Diana on several occasions – pays tribute to the life of this remarkable young woman. Diana, Princess of Wales was admired throughout the world for her vitality, compassion, determination and beauty. When she first came on the scene, she brought a new dimension to the Royal Family and quickly became regarded as one of the most glamorous women in the world. Yet she remained very much her own person: tough but touchingly vulnerable, self-willed but compassionate to a degree that was unprecedented in one of her generation and background. Her tragic death in 1997, in the prime of her life, shocked the world and unleashed a tide of public grief rarely seen. More than a quarter of a century later, her worldwide popularity remains as strong as ever: she is the unforgettable Diana.Trade Review‘Lavishly illustrated’ Sunday Independent (IE)

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • Prince Harry and Meghan Markle - The Wedding

    St James's House Prince Harry and Meghan Markle - The Wedding

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £48.19

  • Salar al-Dowleh: A Delusional Prince and Wannabe

    Mage Publishers Salar al-Dowleh: A Delusional Prince and Wannabe

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £37.39

  • Akbar and the Jesuits: An Account of the Jesuit

    Manohar Publishers and Distributors Akbar and the Jesuits: An Account of the Jesuit

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £38.39

  • Maharaja Ranjit Singh:: The Rise of the Sikh

    Vitasta Publishing Pvt.Ltd Maharaja Ranjit Singh:: The Rise of the Sikh

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisRanjit Singh, a remarkable ruler of the Indian subcontinent, rose to power in the 1770s and created a new empire based on statecraft principles. He stemmed Afghan raids, built a modern army, and defended India against British and Russian expansion. His life story is detailed in RNP Singh's biographical work.

    10 in stock

    £30.39

  • Rani Lakshmi Bai: Jhansi

    Vitasta Publishing Pvt.Ltd Rani Lakshmi Bai: Jhansi

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisLakshmi Bai, Jhansi Ki Rani, a fearless voice against British rule, stood up for the weak, fought oppression, and became a legendary role model in Indian history.

    1 in stock

    £10.66

  • HarperCollins Publishers After Elizabeth The Death of Elizabeth and the Coming of King James

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisA brilliant history of the succession of James I of England, and the shifting power and lethal politics that brought him to the throne.Trade Review‘This is an original, informative, absorbing account, written with verve and style.’ John Guy ‘A deep and fascinating account. Leanda de Lisle’s close focus draws us into palace corridors, country houses and city streets where the excitement, intrigue and danger of the times are palpable.’ Jane Dunn ‘Riveting…Brilliantly recaptures the uncertainty and intrigue rife in the country and court at the key moment when Tudor England became Stuart Britain…A well researched and well written book.’ Mail on Sunday ‘De Lisle brilliantly captures the atmosphere of dangerous uncertainty and furtive intrigue that characterised the last years of Elizabeth’s reign…yet there is far more to this account than well-observed period detail. In particular it recaptures the dangerously unrealistic hope that attended the Scottish king’s accession…there is much here to savour. “After Elizabeth” succeeds impressively in illuminating the moment that effectively creates British history.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Splendid…Manages skilfully to keep you hooked. This is a dense, dark story but one where the modern parallels are but one element that keeps you turning the pages.’ Independent

    15 in stock

    £10.44

  • The Confession of Katherine Howard

    HarperCollins Publishers The Confession of Katherine Howard

    1 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    1 in stock

    £10.44

  • The Times The Queen and the Commonwealth

    HarperCollins Publishers The Times The Queen and the Commonwealth

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisOur most travelled monarch covered well over 1,000,000 miles and visited 117 countries during her reign. From New Zealand to Barbados, we look back at Queen Elizabeth’s most memorable Commonwealth visits.

    3 in stock

    £23.75

  • HarperCollins The Scapegoat

    10 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    10 in stock

    £26.19

  • The Other Side of the Coin The Queen the Dresser

    HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Other Side of the Coin The Queen the Dresser

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £31.50

  • Palgrave MacMillan Us The French Queens Letters Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in SixteenthCentury Europe Queenship and Power

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisA fresh biography of Mary Tudor which challenges conventional views of her as a weeping hysteric and love-struck romantic, providing instead the portrait of a queen who drew on two sources of authority to increase the power of her position: epistolary conventions and the rhetoric of chivalry that imbued the French and English courts.Trade Review'The French Queen's Letters is a useful corrective to discussions of Mary that continue to focus on an image of an overwrought romantic or to gloss over her influence at court entirely.' Journal of British Studies "Sadlack's book frees Mary Tudor, the French Queen, from the role of pretty pantomime princess in which she has too often been cast by historians. This engaging revisionist study of Mary's life and correspondence finds little of the dippy but demanding rich girl of myth. Sadlack shows Mary to have been an astute member of the Tudor dynasty, in every sense a political queen, and one adept at using informal networks of female power and patronage to assert her English and French royal status." - Glenn Richardson, Reader in Early-Modern History, St. Mary's University College, UK "This is an original approach to a fascinating historical figure. Sadlack's thorough knowledge of recent scholarship on women's letters and epistolary rhetoric enables her to read Mary's letters as strategic epistolary tools, crafted in terms of aptum, relating to the character of her reader, and of rhetorical ethos and pathos, carefully deployed to advance her goals. The study of women's agency through letters is currently receiving much attention, and Sadlack's study makes an important contribution to this field. This biography will be the first to take Mary seriously as an actor and an agent in her own life, and to study the impact of her political interventions." - Jane Couchman, Professor Emerita, French Studies, Multidisciplinary Studies, and Women's Studies, York University, Canada "The book combines meticulous archival work with rhetorical analysis to produce a fresh and cogent portrait of Mary Tudor's efforts to use her letters to control not only her own fate but also to influence court politics in two nations. The author's careful recovery, translation, and editing of Mary Tudor's letters will make this book valuable to students, professors, and scholars studying early modern English and French history, early modern literature, and the lives of early modern women." - Catherine Loomis, Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies, University of New OrleansTable of ContentsA Queenly Education Becoming the Queen Marrying Where 'my mynd is' Always the French Queen: Identity Politics

    15 in stock

    £44.99

  • 15 in stock

    £31.56

  • Blood and Oil

    Hachette Books Blood and Oil

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £13.09

  • St Martin's Press Wait for Me

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £15.19

  • The Life of Elizabeth I

    Random House USA Inc The Life of Elizabeth I

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An intimate, captivating portrait of Queen Elizabeth I that brings the enigmatic ruler to vivid life, from acclaimed biographer Alison Weir“An extraordinary piece of historical scholarship.”—The Cleveland Plain DealerPerhaps the most influential sovereign England has ever known, Queen Elizabeth I remained an extremely private person throughout her reign, keeping her own counsel and sharing secrets with no one—not even her closest, most trusted advisers. Now, in this brilliantly researched, fascinating chronicle, Alison Weir shares provocative new interpretations and fresh insights on this enigmatic figure.Against a lavish backdrop of pageantry and passion, intrigue and war, Weir dispels the myths surrounding Elizabeth I and examines the contradictions of her character. Elizabeth I loved the Earl of Leicester, but did she conspire to murder his wife? She called herself the Virgin

    3 in stock

    £18.70

  • Nicholas and Alexandra

    Random House USA Inc Nicholas and Alexandra

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA “magnificent and intimate” (Harper’s) modern classic of Russian history, the spellbinding story of the love that ended an empire—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, The Romanovs, and Catherine the Great“A moving, rich book . . . [This] revealing, densely documented account of the last Romanovs focuses not on the great events . . . but on the royal family and their evil nemesis. . . . The tale is so bizarre, no melodrama is equal to it.”—NewsweekIn this commanding book, New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Massie sweeps readers back to the extraordinary world of the Russian empire to tell the story of the Romanovs’ lives: Nicholas’s political naïveté, Alexandra’s obsession with the corrupt mystic Rasputin, and little Alexis’s brave struggle with hemophilia. Against a lavish backdrop of luxury and intrigue, Ma

    1 in stock

    £18.00

  • Penguin Putnam Inc Seven Sisters

    7 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    7 in stock

    £23.99

  • iUniverse Crown of Venus A Guide to Royal Women Around the World

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £13.12

  • iUniverse The Royal Governorand The Duchess The Duke and Duchess of Windsor in The Bahamas 19401945

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £15.60

  • 15 in stock

    £22.02

  • iUniverse The Royal Governorand The Duchess The Duke and Duchess of Windsor in The Bahamas 19401945

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £24.00

  • Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey

    Random House USA Inc Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe real-life inspiration and setting for the Emmy Award-winning Downton Abbey, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon.Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war. Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Cora Crawley, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home. Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman.This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.

    2 in stock

    £15.30

  • Gracewing A Heart for Europe

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £13.62

  • Poemcatcher Creations Royal Wedding Poems

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £13.62

  • 15 in stock

    £20.66

  • Neville Ness House Ltd Dianas Nightmare

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £23.52

  • Neville Ness House Ltd Fergie Confidential The Duchess of Yorks True Story

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £23.52

  • LEGARE STREET PR Darkwater

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £24.65

  • LEGARE STREET PR Darkwater

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £15.95

  • LEGARE STREET PR Lives of the Queens of England

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £25.60

  • LEGARE STREET PR Hail and Farewell

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £26.55

  • LEGARE STREET PR Lives of the Queens of England

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £17.95

  • LEGARE STREET PR Hail and Farewell

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £19.95

  • LEGARE STREET PR Secrets of Dethroned Royalty

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £25.60

  • LEGARE STREET PR Secrets of Dethroned Royalty

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £17.95

  • LEGARE STREET PR Tiberius the Tyrant

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £29.40

  • LEGARE STREET PR Tiberius the Tyrant

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £21.80

  • Legare Street Press Wappenbuch des gesammten Adels des Königreichs Baiern. Aus der Adelsmatrikel gezogen Erster Band

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £28.45

  • Legare Street Press Wappenbuch des gesammten Adels des Königreichs Baiern. Aus der Adelsmatrikel gezogen Erster Band

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £19.90

  • LEGARE STREET PR Crónica De La Conquista De Granada...

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £30.35

  • LEGARE STREET PR Crónica De La Conquista De Granada...

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £22.75

  • 15 in stock

    £25.60

  • LEGARE STREET PR Daisy Princess of Pless

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £31.30

© 2026 Book Curl

    • American Express
    • Apple Pay
    • Diners Club
    • Discover
    • Google Pay
    • Maestro
    • Mastercard
    • PayPal
    • Shop Pay
    • Union Pay
    • Visa

    Login

    Forgot your password?

    Don't have an account yet?
    Create account