May We Suggest? This post contains recommendations from a CPL librarian. To get your own customized recommendation, just fill out the May We Suggest form — you can expect results within 10 days. All suggestions can be found on the May We Suggest blog or by liking May We Suggest on facebook.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 1921--2021

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was born on June 10, 1921 and passed away on April 9, 2021, just shy of his 100th birthday. While his family and the world mourns and funeral arrangements are made, we can look back at the life of a leader, husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. The longest living member of the British Royal Family due to his marriage to Queen Elizabeth, he will be cherished in memory by friends and family for many generations to come.   

Life of Prince Philip

Philip and Elizabeth : portrait of a royal marriage by 1948- Gyles Daubeney Brandreth

An account of the marriage of Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh offers insight into their contrasting childhoods in spite of a similar ancestry, and the enigmatic nature of their long-time partnership.

Before he met the young girl who became Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip had a tumultuous upbringing in Greece, France, Nazi Germany, and Britain. His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was born deaf; she was committed to a psychiatric clinic when Philip was eight. His father, Prince Andrew of Greece, already traumatized by his exile from his home country, promptly shut up the family home and went off to live with his mistress, effectively leaving his young son an orphan.

Remarkably, Philip emerged from his difficult childhood a character of singular vitality and dash--self-confident, opinionated, and devastatingly handsome. Girls fell at his feet, and the princess who would become his wife was smitten from the age of thirteen. Yet alongside his considerable charm and intelligence, the young prince was also prone to volcanic outbursts, which would have profound consequences for his family and the future of the monarchy.

In this authoritative and wonderfully compelling book, acclaimed biographer Philip Eade brings to vivid life the storm-tossed early years of one of the most fascinating and mysterious members of the royal family.

Using unpublished memoirs, shows how Prince Philip and his uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten maneuvered for a royal marriage from the late 1930s, and the anxieties the Queen's family felt over Philip's German roots.

Royal Family

Queen Elizabeth II by Jennifer Zeiger

When Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born in 1926, no one ever thought that she would one day become queen.Readers (Grades 3-5) will find out how a strange twist of events changed the line of succession in the British royal family, putting Elizabeth in line for the throne. They will also find out what Elizabeth's early life was like and how the United Kingdom has changed under her rule.

Readers will learn about the queen's early years, how her father surprisingly became king, and why she had to take the crown at the young age of 25. This title is complete with simple text, a timeline, and great photographs of Queen Elizabeth from childhood to present times. 

The never-before-published diaries of Alathea Fitzalan Howard-who spent her teenaged years living out World War II in Windsor Great Park with her close friends Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth, the future queen of the United Kingdom-provide an extraordinary and intimate look at the British Royal Family. Like so many others in Great Britain, young Alathea Fitzalan Howard's life was turned upside down by the start of the Second World War. Sent to stay with her grandfather at the historic CumberlandLodge in Windsor Great Park, Alathea found the affection she so craved through her close friendship with the two princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, and their parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, her neighbors at nearby Windsor Castle. Together, the girls enjoyed parties, cinema evenings, picnics, and more, all recorded in honest and captivating detail in Alathea's diary, which she kept as a constant source of comfort. Day by day, from ages sixteen to twenty-two, she recorded the intimate details of her life with the Royal Family and the anxieties of wartime Britain. Now, published for the first time, these unique diaries unveil a candid and vivid portrait of the British Royal Family and of Princess Elizabeth in particular, the warm, quiet young girl who was already on her journey to her ultimate destiny: the Crown.

A biography of Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Margaret examines their early idyllic youth as the closest of sisters as well as their often fraught relationship after their father's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne.

This explosive exposé, Royals at War, takes readers inside a riven Buckingham Palace to provide the definitive account of the unfolding abdication crisis of 2020--dubbed Megxit--during which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, became royal outcasts.

Through revealing interviews with royal family insiders, friends, aides, historians, royal watchers, and others with intimate knowledge of The House of Windsor, this tell-all book looks back at the events, motives and crises which led to Harry (sixth in line to the throne) dramatically abandoning his birthright--in a move not seen for nearly a century, when King Edward VIII also gave up the crown for the woman he loved as Europe teetered on the brink of fascism and war. Like Edward and Wallis Simpson, the catalyst for the scandal here is also an ambitious, controversial American woman.

Experience the heartwarming tale of how the dashing playboy prince fell in love with the beautiful American actress. Meghan Markle becomes the second American and the first mixed-race person to marry into the royal family, bringing with her a breath of fresh air as the House of Windsor navigates the twenty-first century. This deluxe souvenir celebrates their truly modern love story and their special day, from their wildly different childhoods and remarkable romance to the key events preceding the wedding, the titles bestowed by the Queen, the bride's gorgeous gown, and the grand nuptials with their pomp, pageantry, and enchantment. Harry & Meghan serves as the perfect keepsake of this memorable event.

Also available in: print

In the first in-depth biography of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; the infamous other woman who made the marriage of Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana "a bit crowded"; esteemed royal biographer Penny Junor tells the unlikely and extraordinary story of the woman reviled as a pariah who, thanks to numerous twists of fate, became the popular princess consort. Few know the Windsor family as well as veteran royal biographer and journalist Penny Junor. In The Duchess, she casts her insightful, sensitive eye on the intriguing, once widely despised, and little-known Camilla Parker Bowles, revealing in full, for the first time, the remarkable rise of a woman who was the most notorious mistress in the world. As Camilla's marriage to Charles approached in 2005, the British public were upset at the prospect that this woman, universally reviled for wrecking the royal marriage, would one day become queen. Sensitive to public opinion, the palace announced that this would never happen; when Charles eventually acceded to the throne, Camilla would be known as the princess consort. Yet a decade later British public sentiment had changed, with a majority believing that Camilla should become queen. Junor argues that although Camilla played a central role in the darkest days of the modern monarchy; Charles and Diana's acrimonious and scandalous split; she also played a central role in restoring the royal family's reputation, especially that of Prince Charles. A woman with no ambition to be a princess, a duchess, or a queen, Camilla simply wanted to be with, and support, the man who has always been the love of her life. Junor contends that their marriage has reinvigorated Charles, allowing him to finally become comfortable as the heir to the British throne.

Also available in: print

The life of Princess May of Teck is one of the great Cinderella stories in history. From a family of impoverished nobility, she was chosen by Queen Victoria as the bride for her eldest grandson, the scandalous Duke of Clarence, heir to the throne, who died mysteriously before their marriage. Despite this setback, she became queen, mother of two kings, grandmother of the current queen, and a lasting symbol of the majesty of the British throne. Her pivotal role in the abdication of her eldest son, the Duke of Windsor, is just one of the events that provide the backdrop for both thrilling biography and for narrating the splendors and tragedies of the entire house of Windsor.

This documentary employs both archival footage and photographs to explore nearly a century's worth of history from the House of Windsor and its residents.

 

Explores the life of Kate Middleton, her marriage to Prince William, their baby George, and her charity work.

This richly entertaining biography chronicles the eventful life of Queen Victoria's firstborn son, the quintessential black sheep of Buckingham Palace, who matured into as wise and effective a monarch as Britain has ever seen. Granted unprecedented access to the royal archives, noted scholar Jane Ridley draws on numerous primary sources to paint a vivid portrait of the man and the age to which he gave his name.
 
Born Prince Albert Edward, and known to familiars as "Bertie," the future King Edward VII had a well-earned reputation for debauchery. A notorious gambler, glutton, and womanizer, he preferred the company of wastrels and courtesans to the dreary life of the Victorian court. His own mother considered him a lazy halfwit, temperamentally unfit to succeed her. When he ascended to the throne in 1901, at age fifty-nine, expectations were low. Yet by the time he died nine years later, he had proven himself a deft diplomat, hardworking head of state, and the architect of Britain's modern constitutional monarchy.
 
Jane Ridley's colorful biography rescues the man once derided as "Edward the Caresser" from the clutches of his historical detractors. Excerpts from letters and diaries shed new light on Bertie's long power struggle with Queen Victoria, illuminating one of the most emotionally fraught mother-son relationships in history. Considerable attention is paid to King Edward's campaign of personal diplomacy abroad and his valiant efforts to reform the political system at home. Separating truth from legend, Ridley also explores Bertie's relationships with the women in his life. Their ranks comprised his wife, the stunning Danish princess Alexandra, along with some of the great beauties of the era: the actress Lillie Langtry, longtime "royal mistress" Alice Keppel (the great-grandmother of Camilla Parker Bowles), and Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston.

William and Kate : a royal love story by Christopher P Andersen

Prince William and Kate Middleton defied all odds to forge a storybook romance amide the scandals, power struggles, tragedies, and general dysfunction that are the hallmarks of Britain's Royal Family.