A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown review – a crown jewel among royal biographies

It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it – and I mean that sincerely, because Brown has done us all a favour with his flamingo-coloured odyssey. The memoirs of courtiers, flunkies and hangers-on are among his primary sources, but his research extends to royal encounters recalled by politicians and celebrities. It’s biography by crowdsourcing, you might say. It follows Brown’s similar books about Princess Margaret and the Beatles, completing a triptych of 20th-century British portraits. The author is a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles and these end up furnishing a vivid and remarkably telling study of our late head of state, and even more so of the people she reigned over for 70 years.