For years she was mocked as a frumpy housewife with a tiara and diamonds, or headscarf and horses (and those damned Corgis). Then, her family fell apart in a series of embarrassing revelations and antics, and part of one of her favorite homes burned. A decade later, she's the nation's granny.

And having just celebrated her Diamond Jubilee for 50 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth appears to have weathered it all far better than many would have guessed during the most turbulent years of her reign.

Robert Lacey, who has written two full-length and detailed biographies of the queen, culls some of the interesting tidbits and highlights from both for The Queen. It's a souvenir book with photographs that is portable, rather than coffee-table size. The depth of reporting is to be expected for a book meant to be read in an evening.

But it is a handy reference. The opening section covers the years when Elizabeth was a princess not expected to become a queen. Lacey brings her status in those years into focus by comparing her to Beatrice, the oldest daughter of Prince Andrew. When her uncle abdicated the throne and her beloved father became King George VI, Lillibet apparently was a natural at learning duty. As a teen, she decided Philip was her fellow and, regardless of what he's done in the years since, has remained steadfast. As a young mother and the monarch who denied her sister her first choice in marriage, it's apparent that duty once again was foremost.

Later sections of the book spend more time chronicling the mood swings of the nation regarding the monarchy and the foibles of Elizabeth's children. There is much here for Diana-philes as well as those who have moved on.

The book does cover the years since the queen made her speech just before Diana's funeral, when she seemed to be back in best form and putting her foot right every time. The mood that she had become the nation's grandmother and is respected for having stood by her post all these years is conveyed well. It matches the coverage of the queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations last month.

For those who think back to the princess who learned she had become queen while up in a tree in Kenya, or those who have never known another monarch on the British throne, Lacey's book is an enjoyable exercise in nostalgia.
. ( )

This small profile of the life of Queen Elizabeth II is just that...small. Undoubtedly meant to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the book is not worth it for serious fans of the Queen, maybe for those only looking for an extremely brief overview of her life. ( )