The first book to explore the challenges facing the Royal Family on the eve of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. Thorns in the Crown is the story of Britain on the eve of the 1953 coronation. Bestselling historian Barry Turner explores the challenges the Queen and the Royal Family faced in adapting to a society no longer in awe of a social elite and examines the relationship between the Commonwealth and Empire on the verge of disintegration. On one level the coronation was a triumph of benevolent nationalism, bringing the country together in ways that had not been seen since the days of Queen Victoria, but it did leave many open-ended questions, not least the capacity for Britain to rise above the years of post-war austerity to meet the challenges of the new age. Indeed, those who saw the coronation as the icing on a mouldering cake were not short of evidence. Featuring memories and reflections of those who were part of the coronation, Thorns in the Crown is a unique look at Britain as it came to grips with a second Elizabethan age. AUTHOR: Barry Turner is a bestselling historian whose many books include Suez 1956, When Daddy Came Home (with Tony Rennell), Karl Doenitz and the Last Days of the Third Reich (Icon, 2015)
‘a page-turning narrative’ (Daily Mail)
and The Berlin Airlift (Icon, 2017)
‘a fine piece of popular history’ (BBC History). His latest book, Waiting for War, was published by Icon in 2019.
16 b/w illustrations