Do Let’s Have Another Drink: The Singular Wit and Double Measures of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

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This is not a traditional biographical book, so if you do not know a great deal about Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and the Queen Mother, I would recommend starting with a different book. That being said this book will definitely give you a glimpse into Elizabeth as a person outside of the offices that she held during her lifetime. All of the anecdotes that Russell included were entertaining and interesting. I am sure that this took a great deal of work as many of the sections were from anecdotal stories of people who knew or knew someone who knew Elizabeth. As one might expect from the book’s title, alcohol figures prominently, recalling one equerry’s description of the Queen Mother as not an alcoholic, exactly, but “a devoted drinker’. Once, at a dinner in Hillsborough Castle, she responded to the loyal toast by inviting everyone to raise their glasses not only to “the people of Northern Ireland”, but to each of the six counties – one after another. By the end, says Russell, guests were swaying on their feet, while one old general staggered off to throw up in the Entrance Hall’s umbrella stand. The Queen Mother remained clear-headed throughout. However, after the war and the death of her husband she continued her years of service to the crown and her daughter, the Queen. My favorite parts were hearing about her personality. She smiled, teased and enjoyed a smart joke with the people around her regardless of their status. It seems that until the very end she took care of those around her and kept on smiling through all the tough times.

During her lifetime, the Queen Mother was as famous for her clever quips, pointed observations and dry-as-a-Martini delivery style as she was for being a member of the Royal Family. She was also famed for her fondness for ‘drinky-poos’ – usually a gin and Dubonnet or three. Now, Do Let’s Have Another Drink recounts 101 biographical vignettes – one for each year of her long, remarkable life, including her coming-of-age during World War I, the abdication of her brother-in-law, the truth about her tragic nieces and her relationship with her two daughters over half a century of widowhood. The Queen Mother’s life spanned over a century and thus can be an overwhelming topic. (William Shawcross’ biography is a time investment for sure…) However, Russell chose 101 different anecdotes from Elizabeth’s life to highlight her wit and levity. She was known by those around her to be charming and lively, but many of her most-defining moments are from the most serious points in her life. Do Let’s Have Another Drink is a joyful corrective. A triumph’ Owen Emmerson, co-author of The Boleyns of Hever Castle Wonderful prose, telling stories that are hilarious and moving by turns. Immensely enjoyable’ Suzannah Lipscomb I think if you knew who and when the author was talking about you would be fine, for example the Abdication Crisis, Princess Margaret’s affair with Group Captain Townsend, her husbands early death, if you didn’t, then you would be floundering a bit.

I've read many books about the Windsors over the decades, but never a biography solely covering Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, known in her unmarried beginnings as Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. When I drank in the cover of this book and its title, I surmised I was getting truly a new spin on the topic in the form of humorous anecdotes about The Queen Mother. But when I first delved into the book my expectations were upended, for this was an actual biography...and a very good one! So at first I was a little disappointed because I was waiting for the punchlines that weren't coming. However, once I switched gears and realized what a wonderful biography I was reading about this historic royal icon, I ploughed through it with delight! The whimsical stories started coming once The Queen Mother was a widow, freed from the responsibilities and limitations her former role of Queen Consort demanded. During her lifetime, the Queen Mother was as famous for her clever quips, pointed observations and dry-as-a-Martini delivery style as she was for being a member of the Royal Family. She was also famed for her fondness for 'drinky-poos' - usually a gin and Dubonnet or three. Now, Do Let's Have Another Drink recounts 101 biographical vignettes - one for each year of her long, remarkable life, including her coming-of-age during World War I, the abdication of her brother-in-law, the truth about her tragic nieces and her relationship with her two daughters over half a century of widowhood.

Russell sets the tone at the start, laughing gently at the stories surrounding Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon’s birth at St Paul’s Walden Bury on August 4 1900. The fact that Elizabeth’s father, Lord Strathmore, couldn’t be bothered to register her birth until six weeks after the event led to the fabulously bonkers suggestion that she was in fact a changeling, the offspring of a French cook or a Welsh servant who was smuggled into Lady Strathmore’s bed like a latter-day warming-pan baby. In support of this, conspiracy theorists pointed to the fact that later in life she gained weight. “She did look like the daughter of a cook,” claimed one (uncredited) source. “You could hardly say she looked aristocratic.” When told that Lady Mountbatten was being buried at sea, the Queen Mother replied cheerfully. 'Dear old Edwina, she always did like to make a splash!' With the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II, the royal family has been in the news once again. While fascination with the royal family rarely wanes, the younger generations tend to grab all the headlines. The Queen Mother, who died in 2002 at the age of 101, led a fascinating life where she encountered many of the well-known people of the day. She, like her daughter, had a great belief in "doing one's duty" and continued to participate in royal duties until just a few months before her death. This book takes a look at her life, decade by decade, to show the woman who tried (not always successfully) to avoid publicity.Diana Mitford Mosley and the QM did NOT get along, not only because of their politics but because Diana was great friends with Wallis, "that woman". During her lifetime, the Queen Mother was as famous for her clever quips, pointed observations, and dry-as-a-martini delivery style as she was for being a beloved royal. Now, Do Let’s Have Another Drink recounts 101 (one for each year of her remarkable life) amusing and astonishing vignettes from across her long life, including her coming of age during World War I, the abdication of her brother-in-law and her unexpected ascendance to the throne, and her half century of widowhood as her daughter reigned over the United Kingdom. Featuring new revelations and colorful anecdotes about the woman Cecil Beaton, the high society photographer, once summarized as “a marshmallow made on a welding machine,” Do Let’s Have Another Drink is a delightful celebration of one of the most consistently popular members of the royal family. For fans of The Crown and featuring new revelations, never before published, and colourful anecdotes about the woman the high society photographer Cecil Beaton once described as 'a marshmallow made on a welding machine', Do Let's Have Another Drink is a delightful celebration of one of the most consistently popular members of the Royal Family. As Queen of England and later the Queen Mother, we see her tenacity and humorous side emerge as Elizabeth could be herself. She was a lover of life, and even though she had feuds with members of her family, such as Wallis Simpson and Princess Diana, she truly loved and fought for her family until the very end of her long life.