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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
A grand Queen - magnificient, but cold - understanding Queen Mary better, 20 Aug 2007
Queen Mary, the Queen Consort of George V and grandmother of the present Queen remains in public memory as a stately figure, covered in jewels, royal bearing. The ocean liner Queen Mary was named after her. Sir Henry "Chips" Cannon described her as "being above politics... magnificent, humorous, worldly, in fact nearly sublime, though cold and hard. What a grand Queen." In recent years her failures as a mother have been quite stressed.
But who really was this "grand Queen"?
Anne Edwards's account of Queen Mary's life explains why her "fairly humble" beginning as Princess May of Teck: She was the daughter of an impecunious father, the Duke of Teck, a son of a morganatic marriage and extravagant royal mother. She was in the orbit of royalty but not a HRH herself. Financial constraints due to the spending habit of her mother brought further insecurity into her life. Deemed by Queen Victoria the appropriate consort for her less than promising grandson Albert Victor (Prince Eddy), the second in line to the British throne, May was nothing if not compliant. But Eddy died suddenly, in 1892, her future seemed again precarious. But ''with her own sense of ambition to encourage her efforts,'' she swiftly contrived to win the heart of Albert's younger brother George. They married, had six children and in 1910 began a reign that lasted a quarter of a century. There is no question she was an inspiration to her troubled nation, the very model of grace under trying circumstances - for instance, during the abdication of her eldest son, Edward (the most interesting part of the book). But there was always this other side to her: ''a rigid nature that was unwilling to bend,'' she was considerably less successful as a daughter-in-law and mother. But there was much humanity beneath the regal bearing and the brilliant jewels, Anne Edwards makes us aware of this contradictions and much suppression of personal feelings. Queen Mary was "the most loyal subject a kingdom could claim", but it is often very difficult to like her really. But after having read this excellent book, one at least understands so much better.
All in all this is very a well written biography of Queen Mary. Anne Edwards recounts the events of her life with plenty of interesting anecdotes yet does not fall entirely under the spell of her subject. I enjoyed this book immensely.
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