Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
A Voyage Around the Queen
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter, Craig Brown
- Length: 19 hrs and 46 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
Buy Now for £16.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
From one of the funniest writers of our time, the award-winning and bestselling author of One Two Three Four and Ma'am Darling turns his attention to Queen Elizabeth II in an unforgettable and fascinating biography.
THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'Enthralling … deliciously gossipy' MAIL ON SUNDAY
'A crown jewel among royal biographies' OBSERVER
'Wonderfully absurd’ SPECTATOR
'Brilliant' SARAH VINE
Virginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annex; Jimi Hendrix played her tune; Haile Selassie gave her a gold tiara; Dirk Bogarde watched Death in Venice with her; Andy Warhol envied her fame; Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy.
Queen Elizabeth II was famous for longer than anyone who has ever lived. When people spoke of her, they spoke of themselves; when they dreamed of her, they dreamed of themselves. She mirrored their hopes and anxieties. To the optimist, she seemed an optimist; to the pessimist, a pessimist; to the awestruck, charismatic; and to the cynical, humdrum. Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation.
Combining biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire, the bestselling and award-winning author of Ma'am Darling and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this most public yet private of sovereigns.
'An enthralling reverie on memory, identity, coincidence and meaning – testing, teasing, charming, moving and deceptively wise' RORY STEWART
'Completely and utterly brilliant and exquisitely funny and fascinating. This book is, dare I say, majestic. Craig Brown has no peers – I would curtsey to him if I met him' MARINA HYDE
'You wouldn’t think the world needed another book about Queen Elizabeth – but how wrong you’d be. Craig Brown’s wholly original and enthralling biography is absolute heaven from start to finish’ INDIA KNIGHT
'Craig Brown continues to reinvent the art of biography… utterly fascinating' JASON COWLEY
'Brown is as sharp and dryly funny as his subject' EVENING STANDARD
'It is a strength of Brown’s excavating talents that he can fill 650 pages with so many attendant gems' THE TIMES
'Brown’s wry, gossipy style has made him one of the UK’s best-loved biographers' GUARDIAN
'Witty, sharp and unforgettable' WOMAN’S OWN
'Wonderfully readable – to both lovers and haters of monarchy' LITERARY REVIEW
A JAZZ FM SUMMER BOOK CLUB PICK
Craig Brown's book One Two Three Four won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2020.
What listeners say about A Voyage Around the Queen
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Old Walrus Face.
- 09-09-24
Wide ranging and entertaining.
All the different ways you can approach writing about the Queen. Fascinating and funny, I've listened to it all the way through, and now I'm starting again for bits I've missed. One of the top 3 in my library of over 200 titles.Thoroughly recommended for inquisitive minds,whether royalist or not.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julia Mann
- 15-09-24
A tour de force
I bought this with only mild interest in the late Queen but was immediately grabbed by the humour, detail and historical context of the book. The main reader was superb with a vast array of voices to capture the text and feelings of a whole host of characters who’d met, or had an opinion on, the Queen. Craig Brown is respectful but by no means a sycophant so there is balance. I’m not sure I know the Queen any better but that is the point really. We experienced her in our own way but she was always her own person.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gael H
- 31-08-24
It gets better as it goes along.
Edit: I wrote a scathing review after listening to the first few chapters. But I persevered, and after about chapter 20, it became rather funny. Even the terrible accents became tolerable.
Really quait enjoyable.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elizabeth
- 09-09-24
Excellent
I thoroughly enjoyed this- by turns funny, gossipy, moving and thought-provoking, with a good sense of the strangeness of monarchy and the role the institution performs in our national and individual psyches. Excellent reading as well from both the author and Harriet Walter.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S Ward
- 04-09-24
Interesting and enjoyable
Full of interesting stories and facts - presented in an accessible and enjoyable format. I could have done without the ‘dreams about the Queen’ sections - other people’s dreams are always boring!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- anon
- 10-09-24
A difficult subject to satirise
A Voyage Around the Queen never manages to transcend the pompous seriousness of its subject. Mr Brown's hilarious book on Princess Margaret was brilliant and revelatory but the Queen's inherent qualities don't afford him as many opportunities for scurrilous laughs. The audiobook narration (which sounds like it has been earnestly spoken by one of the Queen's Ladies in Waiting) doesn't work at all. The tone of voice lacks any sense of wry detachment or irony, as demanded by the admittedly witty text. Mr Brown should have narrated the whole text himself.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!