Many books have been published about the late Queen Elizabeth II - most of them unauthorised and scandalous.
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In the wake of her death on September 8 comes this wonderful biography which has actually been years in the making, although towards the end it leaves you wondering if she really did die of old age as stated.
And the refreshing part of it is that her story is told by someone who knew her. Very well.
Penguin Random House Australia has released Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait (November 29, $35) by Gyles Brandreth. It is the definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth II.
Brandreth knew her personally, and has written her tale candidly with the grace and sensitivity of someone so close to her, her husband Philip and the wider Royal family.
Told with refreshing humour and moving honesty, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait is a unique biography of the longest-serving monarch in British history.
This highly personal biography of Queen Elizabeth II tells the story of her remarkable life, reign and times from a perspective unlike any other.
It is the story of a woman who has represented not only her people but stood as an emblem of fortitude and resilience worldwide throughout her long life.
There are times when tissues come in handy and for me this included the deaths of Diana, the Princess of Wales, and the Queen Mum.
Then he relates how the Queen and Prince Charles, now King Charles III of course, shared a "wonderful sense of the ridiculous".
They would go into hysterical fits.
"She got wonderful giggles," Brandreth said.
Just when you think you have seen all the photos ever to capture the Queen, either on Royal tours or at home, there are photos I've never seen before.
After Philip died, Brandreth said the Queen had "intense personal grief" but felt it was her "Christian duty" to carry on as best she could despite her own ailing health.
Brandreth said that watching television helped alleviate her spirits, particularly dramas like the British police series Line of Duty.
The Queen reportedly refused to slow down until she suffered sudden low energy and was instructed by doctors to take it easy.
"My husband would certainly not have approved," she said, according to Brandreth.
Brandreth began working on her biography many years ago.
In his prologue written on September 6 - 70 years and seven months since Elizabeth II became Queen and two days before she died - he is sitting in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle in the Elizabeth I Gallery and said his account of Elizabeth II was planned for publication after her death.
This is the day she received Boris Johnson, her fourteenth prime minister, and his wife Carrie as he tendered his resignation. Shortly afterwards she would receive her fifteenth prime minister, another Elizabeth - Liz Truss.
We all remember that photo of a very frail Queen in a tartan skirt with a lavendar twinset, carrying her favourite handbag and steadying herself on her late husband's walking stick. And she had a bruise on her hand.
In his epilogue on September 20, Brandreth hints that the Queen may have had cancer although her cause of death was listed as "old age" - the same as Prince Philip the year before.
"I had heard that she had a form of myeloma - bone marrow cancer - which would explain her tiredness and weight loss and those 'mobility issues' we were often told about during the last year or so of her life," he said.
"Was the Queen given steroids to help get her through that important final day of duty two weeks ago? Was that bruise on the back of her hand that we saw in the photographs of her with Liz Truss the mark left by an intravenous cannula - or simply the kind of accidental bruise that comes with old age? I do not know.
"Prince Philip endured a variety of health problems in his last 10 years. It irritated him when his health became 'the story'. By dying as she did, when she did, where she did, the Queen managed to avoid months of speculation about her health (and the future of the Crown) and ensured a sudden, seamless succession. Dying in Scotland was politically astute, too, given her lifelong commitment to the Union. Even at the end, she seemed to get everything right."
Brandreth is a writer, broadcaster, veteran of Just A Minute, QI and The One Show, former MP and Government Whip, now Chancellor of the University of Chester and founder of the Poetry Together project bringing schoolchildren and older people together to learn poetry by heart.
His many books include the best-selling poetry anthology, Dancing by the Light of the Moon, and the international best-seller about spelling and punctuation, Have You Eaten Grandma? With Susie Dent, the lexicographer from Countdown, he co-hosts the award-winning podcast, Something Rhymes With Purple.
With Dame Sheila Hancock he presents Great Canal Journeys. With Dame Maureen Lipman he is a regular on Celebrity Gogglebox. Gyles is married to writer and publisher Michele Brown and has three children, seven grandchildren and lives in London with his wife, his jumpers, and Nala, the neighbour's cat.
The Queen herself once said; "I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust."
Brandreth has written a book worthy of her trust.