A former Oxford Scholar, President of the Oxford Union and MP for the City of Chester, Gyles Brandreth’s career has ranged from being a Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London’s West End. More likely the seventh Viscount Gage, now such a little-known figure that he doesn’t even have his own Wikipedia page. Drawing on a rich arsenal of anecdotes, a panoply of long-departed sources and recollections, Brandreth does justice to the character and zeal of a great woman and Queen.

Her master of the household, Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt, told Brandreth: “My principal duty with HM has been to keep her spirits up – so I’ve been watching Line of Duty with her – I’m ‘the Explainer’. From her childhood in the 1920s to the era of Harry and Meghan in the 2020s, from her war years at Windsor Castle to her death at Balmoral, this is both a record of a tumultuous century of royal history and a truly intimate portrait of a remarkable woman. This book was written with so much respect and affection for our Queen and told so many stories of her humour, humility and sheer love for her family and country.Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait" is a biography of the late queen from the perspective of someone who interacted with her and her family frequently. Not at any time did I think the book was ‘heavy’ or ‘slow’ which perhaps I had expected to feel of a royal portrait. Lovely to read a new and detailed biography of the Queen; it would’ve been even better if the author wasn’t an old, snobbish tosser, constantly sneering about members of the royal family of whom he does not approve.

What Brandreth does in this book is discuss how other people’s descriptions of the Queen and their experiences spent in her company tally with his own. This book is believable, and his relationship with Phillip and HM for many, many years convinces me of the credibility of this book.

She was more concerned about Harry’s wellbeing than “this television nonsense”, as she referred to the Oprah Winfrey interview and the Sussexes’ Netflix deal, he claimed. It’s very dense and detailed so I would only recommend it—for those who like to read a book cover to cover—to dedicated Royalists like myself. Brandreth obviously had the opportunity to speak to many people who intimately knew the Queen, and this is definitely a book that could not have been published before her death. But how much was written before she died, and how much of the muddle (and maybe lack of editing - could it have been shorter?