Elizabeth, The Resilient Royal

Isolation, scandal, family rifts – 2020 has been a turbulent year for the queen, whose life is celebrated in a new book

- Nici De Wet

SHE famously called 1992 her annus horribilis and it wasn’t hard to see why. The marriages of three of her children collapsed, her daughter-in-law Sarah, Duchess of York, was snapped getting her toes sucked by an American millionaire and a fire swept through her beloved Windsor Castle.

“This will not be a year I look back on with undiluted pleasure,” she declared with typical restraint.

But you can only imagine what she must’ve thought of 2020. A pandemic that claimed the lives of more than 60 000 of her subjects in the UK and hundreds of (Turn over) thousands more across the Commonwealth. Her son Prince Charles and grandson Prince William falling ill to Covid-19. A country rent by the chaos of Brexit.

Her grandson Prince Harry turning his back on the royals. The Jeffrey Epstein paedophile saga that continues to cast a pall over her favourite son, Prince Andrew. The sadness at the death of her long-time friend Lady Moyra Campbell.

And then, to top it all, the death of her precious dog Vulcan, the second-last of the dorgis she so adores. The queen now has only one dog, Candy, left and has vowed not to get any more as she doesn’t want a pet to outlive her.

But at least this year is ending on a brighter note for Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. A new book has been released in her honour, brimming with history, tradition, glamour and culture – and gorgeous pictures of Queen Elizabeth and her family over the decades.

Her Majesty: A Photographic History 1926-Today by royal biographer Christopher Warwick traces her coming of age during World War 2, her marriage, motherhood, coronation and more. It also provides an intimate look at informal gatherings of a family who continue to hold fascination and mystery for millions.