that is great. the recipes are excellent. thank you. thank you so much. how are you? have a great day. that is what we are thinking about. thank you so much. [inaudible conversations] >> hi, how are you? >> excellent, excellent. >> how are you? >> it all happened. it work out. dcl those people? how are you? >> are you a garden or? excellent. >> if i were doing this -- it just keeps me going. >> thank you very much. >> how are you? >> are you gardening? excellent. tell them we are very proud. >> i will. >> great. what's going on? tell me names and ages and all of the vitals. almost like malia. congratulations. you are aged? excellent. what grade are you going into next year? you are 11? are you guys interested in gardening? and you are going to tell other kids about being vegetables, right? thanks for coming to see me. you know, since the girls went to their concert, i don't know -- [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> next sally bedell smith recounts the life of queen elizabeth ii who was under the british throne in 1952 at the age of 25. the author examines the queens public and personal life and politics and prose bookstore in washington d.c.. >> before we get started let me tell you because we are going to have a long signing line this evening. so if you want a book signed but you don't want to stand in line, purchase a book, and leave it at the information counter with the introductions of how you would like it signed and then you can pick it up anytime after tomorrow morning and we will get it signed for you. i am barbara and me. i'm one of the founders of politics and prose, and this evening i want to welcome sally bedell smith. i have introduced her several times before and this evening she is here to talk about her new biography, of elizabeth who is in hers 60th -- 50th year as the queen. for diamond anniversary. and chronicling the life of pamela harriman, diana, the kennedys and the clintons, sally has well established herself as a prominent biographer, prominent and best-selling biographer i should say. for the past 15 years she has also been a contributing editor to vogue. and therefore that she wrote a cultural reporter for "the new york times." during the time, this is a personal site, that she was researching this biography, while she was interviewing over 200 people and spending six months in residence in london, her daughter was married. this was a true anglo-american event. her daughter married an english army officer at the guards chapel which is what she says was a stone's throw from buckingham palace. that part as i was telling sally -- the part of the business life that i was so impressed with was her complete dedication to being a well-informed monarch. she was regularly briefed by the prime minister and and and she assiduously went to her diplomatic red leather box it came to her every day that had intelligence reports, minutes of various sessions of parliament. she was very studious in doing that. well, there is no recognized profession or school that you can go to to become a clean, so she came adit really with no experience but she successfully created a position in which she was both monarch, wife and mother. most of all i think the royal family that had been so marked by scandal, actually it was scandal that, is what put her onto the throne and that was the marriage of -- to the twice divorced simpson. he abdicated in order to do that and that placed her directly in line to succeed to the throne. and then on top of that, she had three divorces and her family. three of her children now have been divorced. she has had the lives of her two daughters-in-law, diana and camilla parker both have been in the gossip columns over and over again and it has been something that she so successfully created her own distance from and she has by all reports, and i think you will certainly feel this when you finish the book, is a well-respected queen. and his sally will tell us about she has also been able to preserve a very good sense of humor and has a great what sally describes as -- so here his sally to tell us all about it. [applause] >> thank you very much barbara. i am so tickled to see you here tonight because i so enjoyed being interviewed by you. you are always so thoughtful in your introduction so thank you very very much. several years ago when the queen was in one of her yearly garden parties at buckingham palace making her way through a crowd of nearly 9000 people and reading a selection of guests, she was asking standard questions such as have you come far? when one woman looked at her, and said, what do you do? [laughter] several days later at a friends birthday friend's birthday party the queen described this and confessed, i had no idea what to say. it was the first time in over the years of meeting people that anybody had ever asked me that question. my job and writing "elizabeth the queen" was not only to describe what she does but to describe what she's really likened to take the reader as close as possible to elizabeth the human being, the wife, the mother and a friend as well as the highly respected leader. to them -- so then let me talk first what it was like to write about queen elizabeth and first share with you the many disparate -- surprising discoveries i made about the queen, because she is the best-known best non-woman in the world. people feel as if they know her but the real woman is very different from the woman in velvet. this is my sixth biography, all of them about larger-than-life characters as barbara mentioned that there is no one like the queen and she lives in her very own remarkable world. while other heads of state have come and gone, elizabeth is the longest-serving leader in the world, spanning the 20 and 21st centuries. she is the 40th monarch in the 1000 year history as the british monarchy. reigning over the united kingdom of england, wales, scotland and northern ireland along with 15 rounds and 15 overseas territories. she is the second monarch to celebrate the diamond jubilee marking 60 years on the throne which is a milestone that she will reach on the gory sixth. the only other was her great great grandmother, queen victoria who celebration was 115 years ago in 1897 when she was 78 years old. if elizabeth, who will soon turn 86, is still on the throne in september of 2015, she will surpass victoria's reign of nearly 63 years. between the two of them, victoria and elizabeth have been on the throne for 124 of the last 174 years and have symbolized britain's far longer than the four men who worked change between their reigns. elizabeth is always surrounded by people, but dean queen makes her a solitary and singular figure. it is crucial for her to keep a delicate talent at all times. if she seems to mysterious and distant, she loses her bond of her subject but if she seems too much like everyone else, she loses her mystique. she doesn't carry a passport. she doesn't have a driver's license, although one of her cousins told me that she drives like a bat out of hell on the roads in her country estate. she cannot vote. she cannot appear at the witnesses court and she cannot change her faith from anglican to roman catholic and because of her hereditary position everyone around her, including her closest friends and her family, bows and curtsies when they greet her and when they say goodbye to her. although she was trained by strict nannies who prevented her from being spoiled, she was also trained from childhood to expect deference. a friend of mine told me about the time when then princess ben princess elizabeth came to visit the family castle in scotland and he playfully threw her onto a sofa. his father, the 12th girl of error it took him by the arm, punched him in the stomach and said don't you ever do that to royalty. the princess didn't mind my friend told me that was the structure in which she was brought up. so how does the biography particularly in america -- especially when the queen has had a policy of not granting interviews? actually it really wasn't too distant from the way i approach my other books which was to turn to those who knew her best for insights and information. i am a long time anglophile and i have visited britain frequently over the past three decades and have made a lot of friends. some of them helped me when i was reporting my book of princess diana in the late 1990s. when i started researching the queen's life i went back to a group of key sources who agreed to help me again and to introduce me to more people who knew the royal family. they also served as my advocates in getting cooperation from buckingham palace. my book on diana has been shared with the royal family and particularly with charles so the senior staff of the palace gave me the green light. as a result, i have access to her inner circle of close friends and advisers. while the queen has disciplined herself to keep her views and emotions under wrap in public, those close to her shared with me some of her fascinating opinions and feelings. what worried her most about prince charles and his marriage to diana was falling apart for example. what would happen if she became physically or mentally incapacitated and even when politically sensitive opinions including one hot-button issue that she discussed with an american ambassador? her friends explains the secrets of her serenity and her courage and they sized her up, sometimes in unusual, and usually purse up ways. the california horse whisperer who was one of her most unlikely friends, told me that when the queen gave him good advice, she showed an incredible ability to read intention just like a horse does. with the assistance of the palace i was also able to watch the queen and prince philip in many different settings, at as the parade at windsor castle while presenting honors at buckingham palace and that whenever anyabwile garden parties at the palace. for that i received a personalized invitation on white pasteboard embossed with gold with the queen's crown and cipher announcing that the lord chamberlain had been commanded by her majesty to invite me. everybody got back. watching the queen at that garden party along the lines line of people i was struck or measured pace. lord chamberlain who is the senior official at buckingham palace later told me that she moves slowly to absorb everything that is going on and to take as much and as she can. i also marvel at her mastery of brief but focused conversation and her sturdy stance, a technique that she once explained to the wife of one of the foreign secretaries, by lifting her evening gown above her ankle and saying, one plans one's feet apart like this, always keeps them parallel, makes sure your weight is evenly distributed and that is all there is to it. as i observed the queen over the course of the year i accumulated impressions that helps me understand how she carries out her role and how earnestly she does her job with great discipline and concentration in every situation. she is not just a figurehead. and she has an impressive range of duties. every day except christmas and easter, she spent several hours reading those government boxes that are rich as described. are delivered. they are red leather boxes that can only be opened by four keys. she reads them in the morning and at night and even on weekends. one of her close friends told me about the time during one of the queen's visit when she was deskbound all morning. must you, maam, her friend asked. that queen replied, if i miss once i might never catch up again. mary stone who is the youngest daughter of the queen's first prime minister winston churchill, told me that when elizabeth was a young 25-year-old queen, her father had been impressed by her attentiveness that she always paid attention to whatever she was doing. it is hard to imagine the amount of information that the queen has accumulated over six decades and she has used this in exercising her rights to be consultants, consultant, to encourage and to war and when she meets with government officials as well as being a military officer, clergymen, diplomats and judges who come to her for confidential private audiences. as she once said, the fact that there is nobody else there gives them a feeling that they can say what they like. the most important counters of these encounters has been the weekly audiences with her 12 prime minister's. consider the church rectory from churchill who was born in the 19th century and served in the army of her great great grandmother, clique -- queen victoria to david cameron, her current prime minister who was born three years after her youngest child, prince edward to go she actually glimpsed at the first -- for the first time her future 12 prime minister when he appeared as hh in the school production of toad hall. probably her most fascinating relationship was with margaret thatcher and in the course of our reporting i gained some great insights into how that relationship worked and some of which contradicted the common view. the queen does not have executive power, but she does have unique influence. in her role as head of state she represents government officially at home and abroad but she also serves as the head of nations which means that she connects with people to reward their achievements and remain in touch with their concerns. to decades past the normal retirement age, she still does something like 400 engagements a year. traveling around the united kingdom, cities as well as tiny hamlets. charles pole who served as private secretary for john meyer and margaret thatcher told me that the queen knows every inch of this country and in a way no one else does. she spends so much time meeting people that she has an understanding of what other people's lives are like. she understands what the normal human condition is. she has also spent an extraordinary amount of time honoring citizens and members of the military for exemplary service. in 60 years, she has conferred more been for more than 400,000 honors and awards and given them in person over 600 times. people need pats on the back sometimes she has said. it's a very dingy world otherwise. traveling with the queen was particularly valuable especially the overseas royal to her i took to bermuda and trinidad. she was 83 years old at the time and her program called for long days of meeting and greeting. her stamina was impressive. matched only by 88-year-old prince philip. whenever they go off on a trip together like that, the lord chamberlain always accompanies them to the airport and someone turns around and waves at them and says mind the shop. i got a real sense of how much in sync philip and elizabeth are with an expert choreography, sort of like fred astaire and ginger rogers. i also saw aspects of them that contradict his caricature of rashness and insensitivity. he always watches the queen intently to see whether she needs any assistance. i once saw him bring a little child over to greet her. you often spot people in the crowd you can't see very well and he will walk them out to give them a better vantage point. when the queen needs a boost, he is also there with a humorous aside such as, don't be so sad, sausage. on the last night in trinidad i also witnessed close range what i had heard about from several people, that the queen does not respond or even in the hottest temperatures. the british high commissioner was hosting a garden party in his hilltop home on an such a steamy evening that everyone including me was dripping from the heat. after an hour of lively conversation with some 65 guests, the queen walked past me very close by and there was absolutely no moisture on her face. one of her cousins who traveled in the tropics with her explain to me in her own an medical way that the queen's skin does not run water. [laughter] and while it may look good, it does make her uncomfortable. i saw further evidence of this a year later on a july day at ground zero in manhattan when the temperature was 103 degrees. one of the women the queen spoke to said to me afterwards, we were all pouring sweat but she didn't have a bead on her. that must be what it's like to be a royal. during these trips, was able to see the buckingham palace machinery on the road. to get to know the senior officials and to get a feel for the atmosphere around the queen and the way her household has changed from the early days when it was run entirely by aristocratic men, as they stood in the lobby of her hotel in trinidad, her master of the household pointed to a half dozen footmen one of whom was a woman, all dressed in navy blue suits. see sam over there he said, he has a master's degree in paleontology. it was a far cry from the stereotype of doubt and abby. getting to know all the places important to the queen further deepened my understanding and her stable -- one ofr horse trainers took me out on the gallup which is a rolling hill where she loves to spend hours in the early morning mist wearing her headscarf, her tweed jacket and her wellington boots as she watches the race horses work out. at holyrood house, her castleman edinboro aid former palace official gave me a private tour. i spent the night in the tower of tower of the castle of may which was the queen mother's house in northern scotland where the queen used to visit every year. i hiked the hills and walked along the river of the queen's estate. and her estate in norfolk where she is in every six weeks in the winter i spent a the day getting a tour of the stud farm with her stud manager and head stallion ground. i also spent a day inspecting the royal yacht can you which is now in a museum near edinboro and i was lucky enough to attend several dinners in the ballroom and a picture gallery at buckingham palace. i was not allowed as a guest of the queen but i was invited by prince charles who was hosting his annual gathering for the prince of wales foundation. sitting at his table decorated with george iii silver candelabra and sculpted centerpiece is, i could immerse myself in the experience of being observed by footmen in royal livery and rooms where the queen entertains heads of state. but my favorite moments were at windsor, which the queen considers her real home. i spent time with two of the queen's elderly first cousins who have known her longer than anybody else. both live near the castle in moderate homes that the queen gave to them. every sunday after church, the queen drives her jaguar to visit one of the cousins who greets her with a curtsy and hands are a gin and dubonnet. and they sit down and they chat about friends and family. as i sat on margaret's sagging sofa in her living room where her dogs toys were scattered all around on the floor, i could imagine the queen sitting in these very same spot with her hat on her head, but completely relaxed. at public events, i watched the queen at a distance. a smiling icon moving through the crowd, careful not to engage too much. so it was especially helpful to have three social encounters at private gatherings and each time i caught the animated gestures and the sparkling blue eyes and a flashing smile familiar to her friends but rare in public. on my first meeting during a garden party at the british ambassador's residence here in washington i watch the queen in a spirited conversation with my husband about the kentucky derby and i remembered what the british artist howard morgan had told me after painting her portrait. her private side took me completely by surprise he said. she talks like an italian. she waves her hands about. [laughter] two years later after i've been working on the queen's biography for a year, and that her again at the reception at the palace, this time in honor of the pilgrims which is a group that promotes anglo-american fellowship. when i mentioned to her that my daughter was getti