With the flair for narrative and the meticulous research that readers have come to expect, in The Diamond Queen Andrew Marr turns his attention to the monarch, chronicling the Queen’s pivotal role at the centre of the state, which is largely hidden from the public gaze, and making a strong case for the institution itself.

Arranged thematically, rather than chronologically, Marr dissects the Queen’s political relationships, crucially those with her Prime Ministers; he examines her role as Head of the Commonwealth, and her deep commitment to that Commonwealth of nations; he looks at the drastic changes in the media since her accession in 1952 and how the monarchy has had to change and adapt as a result. Under her watchful eye, it has been thoroughly modernized but what does the future hold for the House of Windsor?

This edition, fully revised and updated, features a new introduction and a new chapter that sets out to answer that crucial question. In it, Marr covers the Queen’s reign from the Diamond Jubilee to the run-up to the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, taking in the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles’s plans for the future of the monarchy and examines what Elizabeth II’s lasting legacy might be.

With the flair for narrative and the meticulous research that readers have come to expect, in The Diamond Queen Andrew Marr turns his attention to the monarch - and to the monarchy, chronicling the Queen's pivotal role at the centre of the state, which is largely hidden from the public gaze, and making a strong case for the institution itself. Arranged thematically, rather than chronologically, Marr dissects the Queen's political relationships, crucially those with her Prime Ministers; he examines her role as Head of the Commonwealth, and her deep commitment to that Commonwealth of nations; he looks at the drastic changes in the media since her accession in 1952 and how the monarchy - and the monarch - have had to change and adapt as a result. Indeed he argues that under her watchful eye, the monarchy has been thoroughly modernized and made as fit for purpose in the twenty-first century as it was when she came to the throne and a 'new Elizabethan age' was ushered in.

MARR IS BACK... AND BETTER THAN EVER The Prime Minister's days are numbered. The Master, a shadowy figure from his party's past, plans to replace him with someone he can manipulate to his own ends. But who will he choose? Two candidates stand out: David Petrie, a handsome, self-made Scot with a troubled personal history; and Caroline Phillips, a high-flying Londoner whose unconventional private life could make or break her. Against a backdrop of intrigue and betrayal at Westminster, these two must play the Master at his own game if they are to seize the greatest political prize of all.

The Sunday Times bestseller THE STORY OF BRITAIN during the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Find out how Britain changed in this entrancing, lively portrait of Britain's Elizabethan Age by bestselling writer and broadcaster Andrew Marr Britain changed fundamentally during the Queen's long, distinguished reign. So who made modern Britain the country it is today? How do we sum up the kind of people we are? What did it mean to be the new Elizabethans? In this wonderfully told history, spanning back to when Queen Elizabeth became queen in 1953, Andrew Marr traces the people who have made Britain the country it is today. From the activists to the artists, the sports heroes to the innovators, these people pushed us forward, changed the conversation, encouraged us to eat better, to sing, think and to protest. They got things done. How will our generation be remembered in a hundred years' time? And when you look back at Britain's toughest moments in the past seventy years, what do you learn about its people and its values? In brilliantly entertaining style and with unexpected insights into some of our sung and unsung heroes, this is our story as Elizabethans - the story of how 1950s Britain evolved into the diverse country we live in today. In short, it is the history of modern Britain. FEATURING: David Attenborough. Marcus Rashford. Jan Morris. Diana Dors. Bob Geldof. David Olusoga. Elizabeth David. Zaha Hadid. Frank Crichlow. Quentin Crisp. Dusty Springfield. Captain Tom - and many others.

In "The Making of Modern Britain," Andrew Marr paints a fascinating portrait of life in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century as the country recovered from the grand wreckage of the British Empire. Between the death of Queen Victoria and the end of the Second World War, the nation was shaken by war and peace. The two wars were the worst we had ever known and the episodes of peace among the most turbulent and surprising. As the political forum moved from Edwardian smoking rooms to an increasingly democratic Westminster, the people of Britain experimented with extreme ideas as they struggled to answer the question 'How should we live?' Socialism? Fascism? Feminism? Meanwhile, fads such as eugenics, vegetarianism and nudism were gripping the nation, while the popularity of the music hall soared. It was also a time that witnessed the birth of the media as we know it today and the beginnings of the welfare state. Beyond trenches, flappers and Spitfires, this is a story of strange cults and economic madness, of revolutionaries and heroic inventors, sexual experiments and raucous stage heroines. From organic food to drugs, nightclubs and celebrities to package holidays, crooked bankers to sleazy politicians, the echoes of today's Britain ring from almost every page.

Fresh, exciting and vividly readable, this is popular history at its very best. Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents and old prejudices are being challenged. In this truly global journey, political journalist Andrew Marr revisits some of the traditional epic stories, from classical Greece and Rome to the rise of Napoleon, but surrounds them with less familiar material, from Peru to the Ukraine, China to the Caribbean. He looks at cultures that have failed and vanished, as well as the origins of today's superpowers, and finds surprising echoes and parallels across vast distances and epochs. A History of the World is a book about the great change-makers of history and their times, people such as Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, Galileo and Mao, but it is also a book about us. For 'the better we understand how rulers lose touch with reality, or why revolutions produce dictators more often than they produce happiness, or why some parts of the world are richer than others, the easier it is to understand our own times.'

The Sunday Times Bestseller From the award-winning writer of The Times Magazine's 'Spinal Column': a deeply moving, darkly funny, inspirational memoir 'It's beautiful - full of love and light - and an exploration into not only how, but why we survive, despite everything' Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness On Good Friday, 2010 Melanie Reid fell from her horse, breaking her neck and fracturing her lower back. She was 52. Paralysed from the top of her chest down, she was to spend almost a full year in hospital, determinedly working towards gaining as much movement in her limbs as possible, and learning to navigate her way through a world that had previously been invisible to her. As a journalist Melanie had always turned to words and now, on a spinal ward peopled by an extraordinary array of individuals who were similarly at sea, she decided that writing would be her life-line. The World I Fell Out Of is an account of that year, and of those that followed. It is the untold 'back story' behind Melanie's award-winning 'Spinal Column' in The Times Magazine and a testament to 'the art of getting on with it'. Unflinchingly honest and beautifully observed, this is a wise and inspiring memoir about risk and dilemma, heroism and love . Above all, The World I Fell Out Of is a reminder that at any moment the life we know can be turned upside down - and a plea to start appreciating what we have while we have it.

The Sunday Times bestseller Now a major BBC TV series presented by Andrew Marr David Attenborough. Marcus Rashford. Jan Morris. Diana Dors. Bob Geldof. David Olusoga. Elizabeth David. Zaha Hadid. Frank Crichlow. Quentin Crisp. Dusty Springfield. Captain Tom. Who made modern Britain the country it is today? How do we sum up the kind of people we are? What does it mean to be the new Elizabethans? In this wonderfully told history, spanning back to when Queen Elizabeth became queen in 1953, Andrew Marr traces the people who have made Britain the country it is today. From the activists to the artists, the sports heroes to the innovators, these people pushed us forward, changed the conversation, encouraged us to eat better, to sing, think and to protest. They got things done. How will our generation be remembered in a hundred years' time? And when you look back at Britain's toughest moments in the past seventy years, what do you learn about its people and its values? In brilliantly entertaining style and with unexpected insights into some of our sung and unsung heroes, Andrew Marr offers up a first draft of the history we are all living. This is our story as the new Elizabethans - the story of how 1950s Britain evolved into the diverse country we live in today. In short, it is the history of modern Britain.

A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr confronts head-on the victory of shopping over politics. This edition also includes an extra chapter charting the course from Blair to Brexit. It tells the story of how the great political visions of New Jerusalem or a second Elizabethan Age, rival idealisms, came to be defeated by a culture of consumerism, celebrity and self-gratification. In each decade, political leaders think they know what they are doing, but find themselves confounded. Every time, the British people turn out to be stroppier and harder to herd than predicted. Throughout, Britain is a country on the edge - first of invasion, then of bankruptcy, then on the vulnerable front line of the Cold War and later in the forefront of the great opening up of capital and migration now reshaping the world. This history follows all the political and economic stories, but deals too with comedy, cars, the war against homosexuals, Sixties anarchists, oil-men and punks, Margaret Thatcher's wonderful good luck, political lies and the true heroes of British theatre.

More than just an anthology, WE BRITISH is a history of Britain told through its poetry. Written by Britain's most celebrated political commentator for World Poetry Day. This is the story of Britain told from inside. Hundreds of thousands of Britons over many centuries have left traces of what it was like to be them - letters, drawings, text messages, emails and social network exhibitionism. But unlike texts, emails or television, poetry allows people from distant times to talk directly to us, with nobody else getting in the way: a mediaeval ploughman, a Tudor drunk or a jilted Georgian woman can look us in the eyes. What follows, then, is not a history of Britain in verse, but an epic story of what it was to be "British" - which means Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Northumbrian, Mercian as well as English. Combining some of the greatest of our poetry, including poems far too little-known, with explanations and brief historical essays, WE BRITISH amounts to a surprising, uplifting journey towards a new way of thinking about who we have been and who we are.

Two corpses. A country on the edge of a political precipice. A conspiracy so bold it would make Machiavelli wince. Andrew Marr's debut novel imagines what really might be going on behind the door of 10 Downing Street. When a young investigative reporter is found dead on the streets of London few people notice. But when another body - minus its head and hands - is washed up on the banks of the Thames, its grisly condition arouses a little more interest. There appears to be no connection between the two dead men. But, unsuspected by the electorate, there is a shocking and dangerous secret at the very heart of government. While the United Kingdom approaches a crucial and delicately-balanced referendum on Europe, a group of ruthlessly determined individuals will stop at nothing - including murder - to prevent the truth from getting out. Andrew Marr's first novel is a gleefully twisted spin through the corridors of power. Making full use of his unrivalled inside knowledge of the British political scene, Marr has threaded his wickedly clever thriller with a distinctive strand of pitch-black humour, to offer an irreverent glimpse behind the parliamentary curtain.

Thirteen-year-old Tom Curdie, the product of a Glasgow slum, is on probation for theft. His teachers admit that he is clever, but only one, Charlie Forbes, sees something in Tom and his seemingly insolent smile. So, Forbes decides to take Tom on holiday with his own family, with tragic consequences. From one of Scotland's greatest writers, The Changeling explores how goodness and innocence is compromised when faced with the pressures of growing up and becoming part of society.

If the Paintings Could Talk reveals the hidden histories of paintings in the National Gallery, London. With a treasury of fascinating facts, discoveries, and tales, this book describes the flight a work took down a mountainside and the portrait that appeared in a James Bond film, among many other entertaining events and stories. An engaging, accessible, and highly original gallery guide that cross-references entries throughout, the book provides a unique tour of this remarkable collection. Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press

In A Short Book About Painting, writer and broadcaster Andrew Marr tackles the subjects of inspiration, creativity, politics, beauty and form. How does the artist make good work? What constitutes "good"? How important is technique - and the imagination? Following a serious stroke in 2013 that left him partially paralysed, Marr struggled with the physical rigours of painting using oils. This led to his wrestling with some of the very fundamental questions about painting as an art form in itself - and to interrogate himself daily about brushstrokes, colour balance, line and texture. Using his own work in progress as examples of failures, and examples of techniques from classical artists right up to the present day, Marr examines how the painter can improve and learn from his or her mistakes. Marr's provocative, political and instructive book is not just an essential resource for all amateur painters, it is a must-read for anyone fascinated by the creative process and the limits of human artistic achievement.

How do you decide what is a 'story' and what isn't? What does a newspaper editor actually do all day? How do hacks get their scoops? How do the TV stations choose their news bulletins? How do you persuade people to say those awful, embarrassing things? Who earns what? How do journalists manage to look in the mirror after the way they sometimes behave? The purpose of this insider's account is to provide an answer to all these questions and more. My Trade, Andrew Marr's brilliant, and brilliantly funny, book is a guide to those of us who read newspapers, or who listen to and watch news bulletins but want to know more. Andrew Marr tells the story of modern journalism through his own experience. This is an extremely readable and utterly unique modern social history of British journalism, with all its odd glamour, smashed hopes and future possibility.

Beyond our wildest imaginations, other worlds and dimensions exist that are vastly different than ours. These worlds beyond both fascinate and frighten us, but more importantly, they have the potential to bring a great good we never could have envisioned.

In this intriguing collection of stories that explores the ramifications of encounters with beings from the beyond, the appearance of a bewildering and elusive visitor to an eleven-year-old resident brings an unusual gift that turns his entire town inside out. Two young siblings-whose parents have just left them for a year with their callous aunt and uncle-soon discover they have an angry ghost to contend with as well. As a family moves into a strange house, they find the house a lot stranger than they bargained for. When a boy finds his school filled with the ghosts of fellow students and teachers, he is mystified when he sees these same people still alive in the flesh.

"From Beyond to Here" is a compilation of stories for young fans of the supernatural sure to entertain and raise questions about intriguing parallel worlds.

Beyond our wildest imaginations, other worlds and dimensions exist that are vastly different than ours. These worlds beyond both fascinate and frighten us, but more importantly, they have the potential to bring a great good we never could have envisioned.

In this intriguing collection of stories that explores the ramifications of encounters with beings from the beyond, the appearance of a bewildering and elusive visitor to an eleven-year-old resident brings an unusual gift that turns his entire town inside out. Two young siblings-whose parents have just left them for a year with their callous aunt and uncle-soon discover they have an angry ghost to contend with as well. As a family moves into a strange house, they find the house a lot stranger than they bargained for. When a boy finds his school filled with the ghosts of fellow students and teachers, he is mystified when he sees these same people still alive in the flesh.

"From Beyond to Here" is a compilation of stories for young fans of the supernatural sure to entertain and raise questions about intriguing parallel worlds.

"Creatures We Dream of Knowing" is a compilation of seven heartwarming stories that probe the wonders of creation through the eyes of creatures who ask those they encounter to open their eyes and hearts to their wisdom.

When a young boy receives a plea in a dream from a frightened colt with purple diamond eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable adventure that leads him from the warmth of his bed to a dark horse pasture where he must learn to use his hands and his heart to rescue the abandoned foal. As the collection of short stories continues, a band of unique characters will meet a creature from the depths of the ocean previously unknown to humanity; travel into an oriental carpet with the creatures who live in it; discover a butterfly who wants to end a war; share a dragon's story; find out what happens when someone rubs a genie's bottle with the wrong hand; and perch in the branches of a tree unlike any other.

"Creatures We Dream of Knowing" encourages others to simply imagine what would happen if such beautiful creatures truly existed in our universe.

"Creatures We Dream of Knowing" is a compilation of seven heartwarming stories that probe the wonders of creation through the eyes of creatures who ask those they encounter to open their eyes and hearts to their wisdom.

When a young boy receives a plea in a dream from a frightened colt with purple diamond eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable adventure that leads him from the warmth of his bed to a dark horse pasture where he must learn to use his hands and his heart to rescue the abandoned foal. As the collection of short stories continues, a band of unique characters will meet a creature from the depths of the ocean previously unknown to humanity; travel into an oriental carpet with the creatures who live in it; discover a butterfly who wants to end a war; share a dragon's story; find out what happens when someone rubs a genie's bottle with the wrong hand; and perch in the branches of a tree unlike any other.

"Creatures We Dream of Knowing" encourages others to simply imagine what would happen if such beautiful creatures truly existed in our universe.

A sixth-century abbot who wrote a practical rule for his community and a twentieth-century thinker who has roamed through literature, cultural anthropology, and religious thought-what would these two men have in common to generate a conversation between them? The religious study "Tools for Peace: The Spiritual Craft of St. Benedict and Rene Girard" combines their insights on how to understand and overcome violence in the world today.

In his Rule for monks, St. Benedict explored ways that people can live in peace with one another and with God. Rene Girard probed human experience to seek the roots of violence that tears human communities apart and separates people from God. A dialogue between this abbot and this modern thinker across fifteen centuries deepens the insights of both into the causes and cures of human violence and gives us the tools to apply their ideas in our troubled world.

For both St. Benedict and Girard, peace is rooted in God. Anyone who yearns for harmony in the midst of the violence that surrounds us today can learn much from Tools for Peace, essentially joining in a conversation between two people who share a desire for the serenity of God for all times.

At Christmas anything can happen: Scott creates a crisis for his family when the only thing he wants for Christmas is a unicorn. While spending Christmas in England, John meets a family from Cromwell's time. A ghost appears to Rose Lee just before Christmas and desperately tries to get her attention. Christopher goes out to his back yard to meet space aliens who have just landed on Christmas Eve. Martha searches her house for a treasure that a professional wise man says can be found in her home. Danny, a teenage boy genius, uses his time machine to see the future of Christmas. Charley meets a strange dog just before Christmas whose eyes turn red when aroused. This volume contains fifteen tales that catch the mystery, enchantment, and hope of the Christmas season for readers of all ages.

Never has politics been so important in the world and so much in the news as today. But how much of what goes on do we really understand? Written for children aged 9 and over, but a clear and interesting introduction for adults too, All About Politics is a straight-talking guide to how governments really work. All the political structures and ideas are covered, from ancient Greek philosophy to modern governments. With a low-down on all the key terms ending in "-ism", "-ocracy" and "-archy", you can discover the difference between democracy, monarchy and dictatorship - and also see which countries are governed by which system. Find out the pros and cons of communism and capitalism, what it means to be "right" or "left", and what happens behind the scenes in parliament. See how laws are made and explore the role of diplomacy. Plus you can trace a timeline of the history of leadership and discover how different systems and beliefs have developed. Importantly, there are sections about how you can get involved, covering local politics, voting, debating, and human rights. With a foreword by leading political journalist Andrew Marr, All About Politics covers all the big ideas and powerful people in politics, enabling everyone to join the debate and get their voice heard.

A surprising and very personal biography of a woman who may be the world's last great queen, published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of her reign

Elizabeth II, one of England's longest-reigning monarchs, is an enigma. In public, she confines herself to optimistic pieties and guarded smiles; in private, she is wry, funny, and an excellent mimic. Now, for the first time, one of Britain's leading journalists and historians gets behind the mask and tells us the fascinating story of the real Elizabeth.

Born shortly before the Depression, Elizabeth grew up during World War II and became queen because of the shocking abdication of her uncle and the early death of her father. Only twenty-five when she ascended to the throne, she has been at the apex of the British state for nearly six decades. She has entertained and known numerous world leaders, including every U.S. president since Harry Truman. Brought up to regard family values as sacred, she has seen all but one of her children divorce; her heir, Prince Charles, conduct an adulterous affair before Princess Diana's death; and a steady stream of family secrets poured into the open. Yet she has never failed to carry out her duties, and she has never said a word about any of the troubles she has endured.

Andrew Marr, who enjoys extraordinary access to senior figures at Buckingham Palace, has written a revealing and essential book about a woman who has managed to remain private to the point of mystery throughout her reign.