Buy used: $13.64

$6.49 delivery June 16 - July 7. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by wobcanada

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 5 images

Follow the Author

James Pope-Hennessy

Queen Mary : 1867-1953 / by James Pope-Hennessy Hardcover – Jan. 1 1959

4.5 683 ratings

See all formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle Edition

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$13.64

—

$13.64

Paperback

"Please retry"

$26.99

$21.75

$14.83

Board book

"Please retry"

—

$27.00

Kindle Edition
$12.99 Read with Our Free App
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial
Hardcover
$13.64

16 Used from $13.64
Paperback
$26.99

4 Used from $14.83 9 New from $21.75 1 Collectible from $99.91
Board book
from $27.00

1 Used from $27.00

Queen Mary: 1867-1953 [Hardcover] Pope-Hennessy, James.

Publisher

George Allen and Unwin
Publication date

Jan. 1 1959
See all details

Hugo Vickers
1,060
Hardcover
45 offers from $14.27
Anne Edwards
3,088
Paperback
36 offers from $21.59
Jane Ridley
285
Paperback
18 offers from $8.05

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001G6CQN6
Publisher ‏ : ‎ George Allen and Unwin (Jan. 1 1959)
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 0.28 g

Best Sellers Rank: #946,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 683 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

James Pope-Hennessy

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

683 global ratings

5 star		71%
4 star		17%
3 star		7%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from Canada

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Ethan Artyom McIntyre

Fantastic book

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 29, 2022

Verified Purchase

Best written biography I have ever read.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 6, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is thee biography of Queen Mary. Written using primary documents, so there's not questions of, "is this true?" I loved this book and never wanted it to end. I would have ben happy of it had been 2000 pages. Author really knows how to write, using primary documents.

Helpful

linda mccallum

Everything you want to know and a whole lot more....

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 26, 2019

Verified Purchase

Wonderfully written but gosh - the author must have spent a lot of time trying to put every single thing in a positive light. And more detail than you can imagine. Way more.

Helpful

Renata Holder

Fun to read, annoyed about the omission of illustrations.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 4, 2019

Verified Purchase

I am very happy to see this in print again, thanks I believe to the success of Hugo Vickers new book. Written in a chatty, occasionally irreverent style it is a delight to re-read.
My complaint is aimed at the publisher who didn’t bother to reproduce the illustrations/ plates. This is made even more annoying by the fact that they didn’t bother to remove the references to the plates in the text.

Helpful

Amazon Customer

entertaining autobiography

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

funny and full of details - great read!

Helpful

John D. Cofield

A wonderful biography

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 21, 2000

I am so glad to see James Pope-Hennessey's Queen Mary in print again after so many years. This is the official biography of the present Queen's grandmother, originally published in 1959 or 1960. Most official biographies are dull. Queen Mary is not. It accomplishes that which all biographies should desire: not just a bare record of the subject's life, but an evocation of the subject's world. Every home of Queen Mary is elegantly described. Her travels in Italy and elsewhere and her visits to the homes of relations in England and in Germany are exhaustively but not boringly documented. Pope-Hennessey's prose is stately, almost eighteenth century, but always lucid and often witty. My favorite sections of the book are those dealing with Queen Mary's life before her marriage, when she was a morganatic princess with few prospects. Her often difficult and embarrassing early life made her a suitable prospect for a bride for the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, second in line to the British throne. The Duke, or Eddy as he was known in the family, was a difficult young man with embarrassing habits (since this is an official biography written under the auspices of Buckingham Palace, Pope-Hennessey was necessarily circumspect about these habits. You will not find a discussion of the Cleveland Street scandal here, for instance). When Eddy died a few weeks after his engagement was announced, his fiancee (and the British Empire) was transferred to his more suitable younger brother George, Duke of York. Although the circumstances of her marriage and ascent into the highest levels of British royalty were a little unusual, Queen Mary was the epitome of royal dignity for the rest of her life as Duchess of York, Princess of Wales, Queen Consort, and finally Queen Dowager. Pope-Hennessey's coverage of the Queen's personal life is a bit limited,once again due to the limits placed on an official historian. Her relationships with her husband and children, especially the Duke of Windsor, are not dealt with in much detail, and her personal peccadillos, such as her penchant for dropping broad hints about presents she would like, are not covered at all. But there are plenty of unofficial sources if you are looking for that sort of thing about Queen Mary and her family. Pope-Hennessey is the best choice for those looking for a beautifully written description of life in a vanished world.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

richard routhe

A Small Treasure

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 20, 2001

I stumbled upon this book at a library discard sale, andactually decided to buy it to find out more about the Queen for whichthe ocean liner was named than for any interest in the person herself!Like the previous reviewer, I found the detail amazing, and developeda genuine affection for the Queen's mother, the Duchess of Teck, aswell as (surprisingly) Queen Victoria. Pope-Hennessey did an admirablejob of keeping all the relatives sorted out, and the exhaustivefootnotes and references kept the reader on track. Unlike the previousreviewer, however, I thought the book became slogged down in detailafter detail, often delivered in a "cutesy" style that wasless "eighteenth century" than coy preciousness. There wasalso a measure of sexism I suppose that was "normal" when hewas writing which dates the material somewhat. All in all, it tellsan engrossing story of the English monarchy at the zenith, as well asthe decline and fall of the British Empire. One thing for sure- I knowafter whom the present Queen has modeled her fashions these last 50years!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 21, 2002

Pope-Hennessy's book is a delight to read. He writes in a readable engrosing manner which makes his book hard to put down. He gives us a enthralling account of the life of this remarkably down to earth woman who is always a queen. The many love letters she received from her husband, the king, also disclose to us a woman who was indispensable to his success as a monarch. For everyone who has an even remote interest in royalty this is the book for you. A good read!

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Loverofbooks

Wonderfully human biography.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

Having read the book of the book by Pope-Hennessey, I really wanted to read the book itself and was not disappointed. This wonderfully written biography of Queen Mary was a joy to read from cover to cover.
What I found heart-warming to read was that Queen Mary had all too often been portrayed as a cold, superior sort of woman, but she was obviously a warm endearing soul, who did arguably far more than any latter-day Princess in actually going out and working in the Community. Nor did she feel the need to tip off the Press to ensure a photograph being taken to indicate she was a 'People's Person'.
Now that it is back in print, for any royal enthusiast it is a must-read.

21 people found this helpful

Stephen Bentley

The best biography of a modern Royal.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

Queen Mary - simply the best biography of a modern Royal you are ever likely to read. The lady paid her bills, contrary to popular belief, but you wouldn't want to get between QM and a piece of jewellery or an antique she'd taken a shine to. You get a clear sense of how vastly different the world was when she was born, a useful reminder that many of the "old" people (when we 60 year olds were young) had been born pre the telephone, let alone Sputnik and the space race. Mr Pope-Hennessey gently hints that even among their aristocratic contemporaries QM & KG were considered to be terrible parents as well as more than slightly bonkers. The book was written long before George V's true part in the massacre of the Romanov family was known. I'm not sure how their reputations would have recovered, or could have recovered, had the true facts been known when the book was published mid cold war. The detail of her childhood and upbringing is fascinating, her Mother was patronized & despised even though (perhaps because?) she ensured her daughter had (for the time & her class) a good education. Certainly by comparison with the daughters of the Prince of Wales. Her parents were recklessly extravagant, Queen Mary was not afraid of spending money witness the vast quantities of diamonds, turquoise, emeralds, sapphires, gold boxes, Faberge etc that she acquired and some of the dress books that Mr Pope-Hennessey has partially transcribed make for pretty mind boggling reading. The list of antique furniture is quite impressive as well. Her Mum was a granddaughter of George III and it's as though QM was trying to buy her way back into the Royal Family.

I see that, understandably, some reviewers have remarked on the lack of exposition of QM's inner thoughts on the abdication and other events during her life. I suspect that is/was because QM wasn't one to reveal her innermost thoughts to anyone. So one can only speculate. Even her children had no real idea what her actual opinions were on any given subject, such was her iron reserve. Someone, not quoted in this biography because his diaries were not available at the time it was written, reported/described having a conversation with her as having a conversation with the North face of the Eiger. QM did not gossip, neither does her gracious granddaughter the present HMQ. The biography does explain/tactfully hint at the reasons for the reserve - it extended to her affection for King George.

The paperback does not have the photos from the hardback. I think this is a mistake. I'm in my 60s and wasn't born when these people were alive. Consequently I have no idea what they looked like, illustrations photos etc would have been very useful. Another of the reviewers of this book has suggested that a book could usefully be written solely on QM'S experiences during WW2 ( "so that's what hay looks like"). Sadly Sir Osbert Sitwell got there first, though the relevant part of his autobiography is long out of print, JPH lifted from it shamelessly. Most of the anecdotes about QM'S time at Badminton, including her awesome arrival at the head of a substantial parade of removal vans, come from Sir Osbert's book.

17 people found this helpful

Vicuña

Comprehensive and very readable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

I’m just old enough to remember the death of Queen Mary. As a child, I found her an odd but intriguing figure; she was so starched and formal and always looked serious and imposing. I’m not a monarchist, but I’ve remained interested in how the current royal family manages to fool the people into thinking they’re British. Queen Mary spoke English with a strong guttural German accent, but is not generally considered to be German.

Pope Hennessey’s biography of QM I’d guess is definitive. It’s incredibly detailed, with extensive footnotes and revenues which are easy to navigate in the kindle version. I found the first part of the book quite compelling; the complexity around arranged marriages within the European monarchs us amazing. Little was left to chance and most of the royal houses always had their eye on a main prize to secure allegiances and positions of power. Mary of Teck’s background is explained in detail and it’s fascinating.

The writing is lively and to my surprise, I eventually began to warm slightly to this lady. There’s another side to her and it’s brought out well in this enjoyable biography. I’m still no monarchist, but it’s changed my view of this particular royal.

8 people found this helpful

Robert Arckless

A great read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

This book was written in 1959. It is of another era. Like its subject, the redoubtable Queen Mary. It is though beautifully written and very entertaining. And it is an honest assessment, not a hagiography.
For all her wealth and privilege it is possible to feel sympathy for Mary; she was self-effacing and saw her role as being supportive to her husband - not an easy task - and though they clearly adored each other the stiffness and formality of their official lives was a huge strain.
What comes across is a woman driven by a sense of duty.
Her legacy and example to her granddaughter, our Queen, is clear.
For good and ill.

3 people found this helpful

Mrs Geraldine M Faulkner

Disappointingly dull and NO photos

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 27, 2019

Verified Purchase

I have always wanted to know more about Queen Mary who is one of those 'Royals' who seems to have kept themselves very much in the background. James Pope-Hennessy's biography is disappointing in that it is sycophantic and extremely dull. Added to which, there are no images (a 'must' in any biography/autobiography) even though the text tells the reader to 'refer to Plates XYZ'. Once I have finished the book - in the vain hope it might get better towards the end - it is going straight to a charity shop where some other unsuspecting blighter will buy it thinking it is going to be a good read.

5 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract and engage customers	Amazon Business Everything for your business	Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands

Warehouse Deals Open-Box Discounts	Whole Foods Market We Believe in Real Food	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust	Blink Smart Security for Every Home

Follow the Author

Queen Mary : 1867-1953 / by James Pope-Hennessy Hardcover – Jan. 1 1959

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Product details

About the author

James Pope-Hennessy

Customer reviews

Top reviews from Canada

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries