Elizabeth & Philip: A Story of Young Love, Marriage, and Monarchy

Historian Dunlop (The Bletchley Girls) delivers a charming double portrait of Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in the early years of their romance and marriage. While Elizabeth spent most of WWII on the “heavily fortified” grounds of Windsor Castle, Royal Naval officer Philip Mountbatten, cousin of Greek king George II, participated in the Allied landings at Sicily. Though Elizabeth found Philip’s “rough charm” to be “a breath of fresh air blowing through the stuffy castle,” other members of the royal court were dismayed by his jocular manner and German, Danish, and Greek heritage. By 1947, however, speculation that the two would wed reached a fever pitch, and Dunlop suggests that King George VI was happy that the royal family’s four-month tour of southern Africa would slow things down. Meanwhile, Philip officially renounced his right of succession to the Greek throne and became a British citizen, paving the way for the couple’s wedding in November 1947. Dunlop delves into Philip’s moodiness, his propensity to befriend attractive women, and his irritation at the queen’s difficulty in maintaining a work-life balance. Enriched by interviews with ordinary Britons of the royal couple’s generation, it’s a poignant and well-documented study of a couple whose “matter-of-fact style” and “extraordinary work ethic” were a balm for their nation. Royal watchers will be pleased. Photos. (Apr.)