Line purchase a book leave it at the information counter for with the instructions of how you would like it signed and then you can pick it up anytime after tomorrow morning. Well get it signed for you. Im barbara meade. Im one of the founders of politics and prose and this evening. I want to welcome sally bedell smith. Ive introduced hers several times before and this evening. Shes here to talk about her new biography of elizabeth who is in her 60th year as queen her diamond anniversary it is and chronicling the lives of William PaleyPamela Harriman diana both the kennedys and the clintons. I think that sally has well established herself as a prominent biographer prominent and bestselling biographer i should say for the past 15 years. Shes also been a contributing editor to vogue. And before that she wrote for time and she was a cultural reporter for the new york times. During the time just as a personal side that she was researching this biography. She and while she was interviewing over 200 people and spending six months in residence in london. Her daughter was married. This was a true angloamerican event her daughter married in English Army Officer at the guards chapel, which is just what she says was a stones throw for Buckingham Palace. Um the part that ive just telling sally the part of elizabeths life that i was so impressed with was her complete dedication being a wellinformed monarch. She was regularly briefed by the Prime Minister and she assiduously went to her diplomatic red red leather box that came to her every day that had intelligence reports budget reporter reports minutes of a very sessions of parliament. She was just she was very studious in doing that. Well, theres theres no recognized profession our school that you can go to to become a queen so she came at it really of with no experience at all, but she really successfully created a position in which she was both monarch wife and mother. But most of all i think in a royal family that had been so marked by scandal actually it was scandal that put her once again. It was the one that put her onto the throne and that was the the marriage of edward the eighth to the twice divorced Wallace Simpson and so that he abdicated in order to do that and that placed her directly in line of to succeed to the throne. Um, she and then on top of that shes had three divorces in her family three of her children now have been divorced. Shes had the lives of her two, daughtersinlaw diana and Camilla Parker bowles both been in the gossip columns over and over again, and its been something that shes so so successfully created her own distance from and its never and she has by all reports and i think youll certainly feel this when you finish the book is a well well respected queen, but sally will tell us about shes also been able to preserve a very good sense of humor and have a great what sally described as you want to be. So here sally to tell us all that. Thank you very much. Barbara said i was so tickled to see you here tonight, because ive so enjoyed being introduced. By you before youre always so thoughtful and your introductions and thank you very very much. Um several years ago when the queen was at one of her yearly garden parties at Buckingham Palace making her way through a crowd of nearly 9,000 people and greeting a selection of guests. She was asking such standard questions as have you come far. When one woman looked at her and said, what do you do . Several days later at a Friends Birthday Party the queen described the exchange and confessed. I had no idea what to say. It was the first time in all the years of meeting people that anybody had ever asked her that question. Or my job in writing elizabeth. The queen was not only to explain what she does but to tell what shes really like. And to take the reader as close as possible to elizabeth the human being the wife the mother and the friend as well as the highly respected leader. Today im going to talk first about what it was like to write about Queen Elizabeth. And second. Id like to share with you some of the many surprising discoveries that i made about the queen. Because she is the best known woman in the world. People feel is if they know her. But the real woman is very different from the woman in velvet and ermine. This is my sixth biography all of them about larger than life characters that barbara mentioned, but there is no one like the queen and she lives in her very own remarkable world. Well other heads of state have come and gone elizabeth is the longest serving leader in the world spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. She is the 40th monarch in the thousand year history of the british monarchy. Raining over the United Kingdom of england wales, scotland and Northern Ireland along with 15 realms and 14 overseas territories. She is the second monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee marking 60 years on the throne, which is a milestone that you will reach on february 6th. 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 2015. She will surpass victorias reign of nearly 64 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 far longer than the four men who were kings between their reins. Elizabeth is always surrounded by people. But being queen makes her a solitary and singular figure. It is crucial for her to keep a delicate balance at all times if she seems too mysterious and distant. She loses her bond with her subjects, but if she seems too much like everyone else she loses her mystique. She doesnt carry a passport. She doesnt have a drivers license, although one of her cousins told me that she drives like a bat out of hell on the roads of her country estates. She cant vote. She cant appear as a witness in court and she cant change her faith from anglican to roman catholic. And because of her hereditary position everyone around her including her closest friends and her family. Bowels 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 this deference. A friend of mine told me about the time when then princess elizabeth came to visit his family castle in scotland. And he playfully threw her onto a sofa. His father the twelfth earl of airlie took him by the arm punched him in the stomach and said dont you ever do that to royalty . The princess didnt mind my friend told me but that was the structure in which she was brought up. So how does a biographer particularly in american penetrate the royal bubble, especially when the queen has had a policy for the past 60 years of not granting interviews . Actually, it really wasnt too different from the way i approached 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 visited britain frequently over the past three decades and have made a lot of friends. Some of whom help me when i was reporting my book on Princess Diana in the late 1990s. When i started researching the queens life, i went back to a group of key sources. Who agreed to help me again and to introduce me to more people . Knew the royal family they also served as my advocates in getting cooperation from Buckingham Palace. My book on diana had been fair to the royal family and particularly to charles. So the senior staff at the palace briefed the queen. And they gave me the green light. As a result i had access to her inner circle of Close Friends and advisors. While the queen has disciplined herself to keep her views and emotions under wraps in public. Those close to her shared with me some of her fascinating opinions and feelings. What worried her most about Prince Charles when his marriage to diana was falling apart, for example. What would happen if she became physically or mentally incapacitated . And even some politically sensitive opinions, including one hot button issue that she discussed with an american ambassador. Her friends explained the secrets of her serenity and her courage and they sized her up sometimes in unusual unusually perceptive ways Monty Roberts 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 Phillip in many different settings at the garter parade at Windsor Castle while presenting honors at Buckingham Palace investitures. And at one of her annual garden parties at the palace. For that i received a personalized invitation on white pasteboard embossed with goal in gold with the queens crown and cipher announcing that the lord chamberlain. Had been commanded by her majesty to invite me. Everybody got that. Watching the queen at that garden party make her way along a line of people. I was struck by her measured pace her lord chamberlain. Who is the senior official at Buckingham Palace later told me that she moved slowly to absorb everything thats going on and to take as much in as she can. I also marveled at her mastery of brief but focused conversations and her sturdy stance. A technique that she once explained to the wife of one of her foreign secretaries by lifting her evening gown above her ankle. And saying one plants ones feet apart like this always keep them parallel. Make sure your weight is evenly distributed and thats all there is to it. As i observed the queen over the course of a year. I accumulated impressions that helped 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 spends several hours reading those government boxes that barbara just described. They are delivered they are 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 queens visits when she was deskbound all morning. Must you maam. Her friend asked the queen replied if i missed once i might never catch up again. Mary somes who is the youngest daughter of went over the queens first Prime MinisterWinston 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. Its hard to imagine the amount of information that the queen has accumulated over six decades and she has used it in exercising her right to be consulted to encourage and to warn when she meets with government officials as well as senior military officers clergyman diplomats and judges who come to her for confidential private audiences as she once said the fact that theres nobody else there gives them a feeling that they can say what they like the most important encounters of these encounters have been the weekly audiences with her 12 Prime Ministers. Consider the trajectory from churchill who was born in the 19th century and served in the army of her greatgreatgrandmother, queen, victoria. To David Cameron her current Prime Minister who was born three years after her youngest child prince edward. She actually glimpsed the first of her there her for the first time her future twelfth Prime Minister when he appeared at age 8 in a School Production of toad of toad hall with edward. Probably her most fascinating relationship was with Margaret Thatcher. And in the course of my 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 a role is head of state. She represents the government officially at home and abroad but she also serves as head of nation, which means that she connects with people to reward their achievements and remain in touch with their concerns. Two decades passed the normal retirement age. She still does Something Like 400 engagements a year. Traveling around the United Kingdom to cities as well as tiny hamlets. Charles pole who served as private secretary to both john major and Margaret Thatcher told me that the queen knows every inch of this country in a way. No one else does. She spends so much time meeting people that she hasnt understanding of what other peoples lives are like she understands what the normal human condition is. Shes also spent an extraordinary amount of time honoring citizens and members of the military for Exemplary Service in 60 years. She has conferred 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 its a very dingy world otherwise traveling with the queen was particularly valuable, especially the overseas royal tour. 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 Phillip. Whenever they go off on a trip together like that the lord chamberlain always accompanies to the airport and phillip terms around and waves adam him 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 him 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 he often spots people in the crowd who cant see very well and hell walk them out to give them a better vantage point. When the queen needs a boost hes also there with a humorous aside such as dont be so sad sausage. On the last night in trinidad. I also witnessed a close range what i had heard about from several people that the queen doesnt perspire even in the hottest temperatures. The british high commissioner was hosting a garden party in his hilltop home on such a steamy evening that everyone including me was dripping from the heat. But after an hour of lively conversations 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 explained to me in her own inimitable way that the queens skin does not run water. And that while it may look good it does make her uncomfortable. I saw further evidence of this a year later on july day at ground zero in manhattan when the temperature hit 103 degrees. And one of the women the queen spoke to said to me afterwards. We were all pouring sweat, but she didnt have a bead on her that must be what its like to be a royal. During these trips. I 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 i stood in the lobby of her hotel in trinidad her master of the household pointed toward a half dozen footman one of whom was a woman all dressed in navy blue suits. See sam over there. He said he has a masters degree in paleontology. It was a far cry from the stereotype of downton abbey. Getting to know all the places important to the queen further deepened my understanding at her stables and Berkshire One of her horse trainers took me out on the gallups, which are the Rolling Hills where she loves to spend hours in the Early Morning mist wearing her head scarf her tweed jacket and her wellington boots as she watches her racehorses work out. At Hollywood House her castle in edinboro a former senior palace official gave me a private tour. I spent the night in the tower. Of the castle of may which is the queen mothers house in northern scotland where the queen used to visit every year. I hiked the hills and walked along the river d at the queens estate in the scottish highland balmoral. At sandringham her estate in norfolk where she retreats for nearly six weeks every winter i spent a day getting a tour of the stud farm with her stud manager and her head stallion groom. I also spent a day inspecting the royal yacht britannia, which is now a museum near edinburgh. And i was lucky enough to attend several dinners in the ballroom and the picture gallery at Buckingham Palace. I was not alas a guest of the queen, but i was invited by Prince Charles who was hosting the one his annual gatherings of his prince of wales foundation. But sitting at a table decorated with george the third silver guilt candelabra and sculpted centerpieces, i could immerse myself in the experience of being served by footman in royal livery in 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 queens elderly First Cousins who have known her longer than anybody el