This is the first major biography of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh - both royal, both great-great-great grandchildren of Queen Victoria, but in temperament and upbringing very different people. Her childhood was loving and secure, his turbulent: the Duke's grandfather was assassinated, his father arrested, his family exiled, his parents separated by the time he was ten.Elizabeth and Philip met as cousins in the 1930s. They married in 1947-aged twenty-one and twenty-six. For almost sixty years theirs have been among the most famous faces in the world - yet the personalities behind the image remain elusive, and the nature of their marriage is an enigma.Philip and Elizabeth tells the extraordinary story of these two contrasting lives, assesses their achievements - together and apart - and explores the nature of their relationships with each other and with their children.Gyles Brandreth has met all of the principal players in the story; he quotes no anonymous sources; he has known the Duke of Edinburgh for twenty-five years and has interviewed him. This is a unique and revealing portrait of a remarkable partnership, told with candor and authority and illustrated with Prince Philip's family photographs and pictures from the Queen's royal collection. Read Less