With previously unpublished material, Princess looks afresh at Queen Elizabeth II's early life. It traces how an "ordinary country girl" found herself next in line for the throne at age ten. Vivid anecdotes reveal more about her and the people who shaped her life. Breaking new ground for a future English monarch, she became the first female member of the royal family to serve on active duty during World War II. Indeed, by the time of her coronation in 1953, she had already achieved a "solid background." With previously unpublished material and unique memories from friends and relatives who have known her since childhood, this book looks afresh and in richer depth at her life as Princess, glittering yet isolating. Vivid detail and anecdotes reveal more about her, the era in which she grew up and the people who shaped her life. The archives of royal confidante Lady Desborough and Private Secretary Sir Alec Hardinge reveal unseen letters from the Princess and the royal family, giving intimate insights into their lives and minds. Here is her sadness at the death of her nanny, Alah; her joy in her children; her melancholy as a young wife when Philip returns to his ship; the sensitivities of her father. Here too is the Princess with the aristocratic Bowes Lyons, her mother's family, who featured significantly in her life, yet rarely appear in books. The author sheds new light on anomalies surrounding the birth of her mother who, it has been asserted, was the daughter of the family's cook. The strain of wartime on the royal family is highlighted in new material contrasting the stance of the Princess's uncles, the Duke of Windsor and David Bowes Lyon.