“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
Shakespeare’s words from Henry IV, Part 2, have never seemed so apt, particularly these days. Perhaps this is why The Crown, the Netflix show that chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II, continues to captivate us well into its third season. Fresh from her Oscar-winning turn as Queen Anne in The Favourite, Olivia Colman has stepped into the shoes of another British monarch for The Crown’s third season, bringing a mature and somewhat colder Queen Liz to our screens.
I’m very much enjoying this latest season and wanted to take some time to gather a few books that might appeal to fans of the show. So, if you’ve already finished season 3 of The Crown, here are a couple of books that are well worth checking out. Read on!
COMPANION PIECES
These two books are the official companion pieces written by the show’s historical consultant Robert Lacey, a renowned biographer in his own right. As such, they’re the perfect place to start your post-watch reading for those who want the inside scoop.
The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 1
by Robert Lacey
This official companion to the show’s first season is an in-depth exploration of the early years of Elizabeth II’s time as Queen, complete with extensive research, additional material, and exclusive, beautifully reproduced images. Relive the majesty of the first season of the hit show.
Buy it here
The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 2
by Robert Lacey
In this incredible companion to the second and third seasons of Netflix’s acclaimed series The Crown, renowned biographer and the show’s historical consultant Robert Lacey takes us through the real history that inspired the drama. Covering two tumultuous decades in the reign of Elizabeth II, Lacey looks at the key social, political and personal moments and the effect they had not only on the royal family, but also on the world around them.
Buy it here
NON-FICTION
Royal biographies are a dime a dozen these days, and the publication onslaught show no signs of slowing down. The ones we’ve picked out below range from the quintessential (Elizabeth the Queen) to the quirky (Ma’am Darling), but they all promise to be absolutely fascinating and insightful reads.
Elizabeth the Queen
by Sally Bedell Smith
This definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth II is the first all-round, up-close picture of one of the most fascinating, enigmatic and admired women in the world. With exclusive access to the Queen’s personal letters, close friends and associates, this intimate biography is a treasure trove of fresh insights on her public persona and her private life.
Buy it here
My Husband and I: The Inside Story of 70 Years of the Royal Marriage
by Ingrid Seward
When a young Princess Elizabeth met and fell in love with the dashing Naval Lieutenant Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, it wasn’t without its problems. The romance between the sailor prince and the young princess brought a splash of colour to a nation still in the grip of post-war austerity. When they married in Westminster Abbey in November 1947, there were 3000 guests, including six kings and seven queens. Now, after 70 years of their marriage, acclaimed royal biographer Ingrid Seward sheds new light on their relationship and its impact on their family and on the nation.
Buy it here
Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses Of Princess Margaret
by Craig Brown
She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando clam up. She cold-shouldered Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine and Pablo Picasso lusted over her. To her friends Princess Margaret was witty and regal, to her enemies, she was rude and demanding. Ma’am Darling looks at her from many angles, creating a kaleidoscopic biography, and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.
Buy it here
Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown
by Anne Glenconner
The remarkable life of Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret who was also a Maid of Honour at the Queen’s Coronation – and is a character in The Crown this spring. Anne Glenconner reveals the real events behind The Crown as well as her own life of drama, tragedy and courage, with the wonderful wit and extraordinary resilience which define her.
Buy it here
FICTION
One of the best things about The Crown is the way it constructs moments of high drama around a figure who remains essentially quite closed off from us, giving emotional resonance to personal moments that we can only ever imagine. With that in mind, here are a few novels about royalty that are big on drama and imagination.
The Uncommon Reader
by Alan Bennett
The uncommon reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely (J.R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.
Buy it here
Mrs Queen Takes the Train
by William Kuhn
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, is growing increasingly disenchanted after her decades of public service and years of family scandal. One day, the Queen takes things into her own hands and, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, leaves the palace alone and incognito. Capturing the faded but enduring glamour and glory of a seemingly old-fashioned institution, and a woman who wonders if she, too, has become outmoded, this is a charming, witty and poignant novel of responsibilities and freedom.
Buy it here
The White Queen
by Philippa Gregory
The first in a stunning new series, The Cousins War, is set amid the tumult and intrigue of The War of the Roses. The White Queen tells the story of a common woman who ascends to royalty by virtue of her beauty, a woman who rises to the demands of her position and fights tenaciously for the success of her family, a woman whose two sons become the central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the Princes in the Tower whose fate remains unknown to this day.
Buy it here
Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel
England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey’s clerk, and later his successor. From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion, suffering and courage.
Buy it here
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Was anyone else obsessed with the Royal Diaries series as a kid? Just me? Perhaps you’ve been enjoying the rise of royal Netflix christmas specials such as The Princess Switch and A Christmas Prince? If that’s the case, you’ll love the books we’ve gathered below!
There’s a bit of a royal trend happening in young adult and new adult fiction lately, but YA books about royalty aren’t exactly new (hello Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series). If you like your YA with lashings of regal glamour and intrigue, scroll down.
Red, White & Royal Blue
by Casey McQuiston
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius – his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations …
Buy it here
American Royals
by Katharine McGee
HRH Princess Samantha has always been a royal rebel. She’s the spare not the heir, so no one minds too much who she dates or how hard she parties. It helps that her sister, Princess Beatrice, is literally perfect. She’s demure, sweet and beautiful, and she knows that the crown always comes first – no matter what her heart might really want. But they’re not the only ones with their eye on the throne …
Buy it here
Royals
by Rachel Hawkins
Meet Daisy Winters. She’s an offbeat sixteen-year-old Floridian with mermaid-red hair; a part time job at a bootleg Walmart, and a perfect older sister who’s nearly engaged to the Crown Prince of Scotland. Daisy has no desire to live in the spotlight, but relentless tabloid attention forces her join Ellie at the relative seclusion of the castle across the pond. While the dashing young Miles has been appointed to teach Daisy the ropes of being regal, the prince’s roguish younger brother kicks up scandal wherever he goes, and tries his best to take Daisy along for the ride. The crown – and the intriguing Miles – might be trying to make Daisy into a lady … but Daisy may just rewrite the royal rulebook to suit herself.
Buy it here
The Queen of the Tearling
by Erika Johansen
Kelsea Glynn is the sole heir to the throne of Tearling but has been raised in secret after her mother – a monarch as vain as she was foolish – was murdered for ruining her kingdom. For 18 years, the Tearling has been ruled by Kelsea’s uncle in the role of Regent however he is but the debauched puppet of the Red Queen, the sorceress-tyrant of neighbouring realm of Mortmesme. On Kelsea’s nineteenth birthday, the tattered remnants of her mother’s guard – each pledged to defend the queen to the death – arrive to bring this most un-regal young woman out of hiding. And so begins her journey back to her kingdom’s heart, to claim the throne, win the loyalty of her people, overturn her mother’s legacy and redeem the Tearling from the forces of corruption and dark magic that are threatening to destroy it.
Buy it here
Have any suggestions for our reading list for The Crown? Tell us below!
About the Contributor
Olivia Fricot
Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.
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