Justine Picardie is the author of six books, including _Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture_, and the international bestseller, _Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life_. She is a contributing editor to _Harper's Bazaar_ and was formerly an investigative journalist for the _Sunday Times_ and columnist for the _Telegraph_. She was also editor of the _Observer Magazine_ and features director of _Vogue_.
Published ahead of the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II's birth and sumptuously illustrated with over 100 images, this is an exquisite hidden history of the Crown and how it survived a tumultuous era and two world wars.
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From the birth of the house of Windsor in 1917, its leading women - Queen Mary, the Queen Mother, the Duchess of Windsor and Queen Elizabeth II - faced abdication and assassination, revolution and the rise of fascism, the threat of invasion and all-out war. Their sartorial decisions, alongside those of their royal husbands, projected power and perpetuity, diplomacy and defiance.
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_In this cinematic story of espionage and exquisite couture, Justine Picardie reveals the undercover lives of the creators behind the facade - including Hardy Amies, Cecil Beaton, Norman Hartnell and Edward Molyneux - and traces the ways in which visual iconography safeguarded the monarchy even when their reign seemed to be hanging by a thread.
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_Drawing on original research in the Royal Archives and her own experiences at Balmoral, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, Picardie explores the family feuds and international conflicts that challenged the Crown, and how royal fashion is wielded as a weapon._