Every year over 5000 royal engagements take place around the world, from the Queen's famous summer garden parties to the mysterious world of the Privy Council and high-profile overseas tours. But little is widely known about the inner workings of the institution that lies at the very heart of the British nation. For the first time ever, The Monarchy takes the reader behind the scenes, meeting the people that keep the royal machine running like clockwork. With unprecedented access to the key players and organizations involved, The Monarchy follows the working life of the Queen over the course of a whole year, both home and abroad. Ever wondered who opens the Queen's mail, who pays the bills, or even how the royals follow the score in the Ashes? Alongside such trivial matters sit weightier concerns, such as audiences with the Prime Minister, the formal honouring of bravery and excellence, and the sensitive issue of the royal response at times of controversy or crisis. Accompanying a major BBC1 television series, The Monarchy provides a fascinating insight into the public and private lives of this most familiar of families. Written by the Daily Mail's, Robert Hardman, and lavishly illustrated with exclusive colour photographs, this book will appeal both to avid royal-watchers and anyone fascinated in the history and heritage of the United Kingdom.

In 2012, Queen Elizabeth II will celebrate a historic milestone: 60 years as Britain's Queen and the constitutional monarch of the globespanning British Commonwealth. Join TIME as we explore the turbulent life and times of Elizabeth and the royal House of Windsor. Here is a chronicle of war and sacrifice...of a throne abdicated for love...of the late, beloved People's Princess, Diana...and of the next generation of British monarchs, king-in-waiting Prince Charles and wife Camilla...and Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, whose 2011 marriage began a fresh new chapter in the annals of the House of Windsor.

Photographer Chris Jackson has been by the Royal family's side on domestic visits and overseas tours for the past fifteen years, resulting in an unparalleled photographic archive of the evolving British Royal family. Occupying a front-row seat to history, Jackson's assignments have taken him to the four corners of the Earth to document the extraordinary breadth and devotion of the Royals to causes such as cancer research, mental health, and HIV awareness in Africa. In his own words in captions and texts, he reveals the magic as well as the logistics of what it's like to photograph the Royal family. The result is this unique collection of photographs of the modern British Royal Family the archive of this multi-award winning Royal Photographer and current Royal Photographer of the Year. From the modern-day fairy tale of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding to the births of Prince George and Princess Charlotte and their soon-to-be new sibling to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's historic marriage to countless Royal tours in between, this book presents the British Monarchy and Queen Elizabeth II, its most enduring icon, through the lens of one of its most trusted photographers. Whether it's Prince George's first day of school, the Duchess of Cambridge playing cricket in Mumbai, or the Invictus Games, Jackson records moments both large and small with a warmth and sincerity that has made him a media standout. Organized by theme, from State Occasions to Charity works to a typical year in the Royal Diary, this book celebrates fifteen years of the Royals in intimate portraits of a singular family's role on the world stage at a unique moment in time.

This book provides a boldly original account of Middle English literature from the Norman Conquest to the beginning of the sixteenth century. It argues that these centuries are, in fundamental ways, the momentous period in our literary history, for they are the long moment in which the category of literature itself emerged as English writing began to insist, for the first time, that it floated free of any social reality or function. This book also charts the complex mechanisms by which English writing acquired this power in a series of linked close readings of both canonical and more obscure texts. It encloses those readings in five compelling accounts of much broader cultural areas, describing, in particular, the productive relationship of Middle English writing to medieval technology, insurgency, statecraft and cultural place, concluding with an in depth account of the particular arguments, emphases and techniques English writers used to claim a wholly new jurisdiction for their work. Both this history and its readings are everywhere informed by the most exciting developments in recent Middle English scholarship as well as literary and cultural theory. It serves as an introduction to all these areas as well as a contribution, in its own right, to each of them.

From one of the world’s most celebrated moral philosophers comes a thorough examination of the current political crisis and recommendations for how to mend our divided country. For decades Martha C. Nussbaum has been an acclaimed scholar and humanist, earning dozens of honors for her books and essays. In The Monarchy of Fear she turns her attention to the current political crisis that has polarized American since the 2016 election. Although today’s atmosphere is marked by partisanship, divisive rhetoric, and the inability of two halves of the country to communicate with one another, Nussbaum focuses on what so many pollsters and pundits have overlooked. She sees a simple truth at the heart of the problem: the political is always emotional. Globalization has produced feelings of powerlessness in millions of people in the West. That sense of powerlessness bubbles into resentment and blame. Blame of immigrants. Blame of Muslims. Blame of other races. Blame of cultural elites. While this politics of blame is exemplified by the election of Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit, Nussbaum argues it can be found on all sides of the political spectrum, left or right. Drawing on a mix of historical and contemporary examples, from classical Athens to the musical Hamilton, The Monarchy of Fear untangles this web of feelings and provides a roadmap of where to go next.

How much power does a monarch really have? How much autonomy do they enjoy? Who regulates the size of the royal family, their finances, the rules of succession? These are some of the questions considered in this edited collection on the monarchies of Europe. The book is written by experts from Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It considers the constitutional and political role of monarchy, its powers and functions, how it is defined and regulated, the laws of succession and royal finances, relations with the media, the popularity of the monarchy and why it endures. No new political theory on this topic has been developed since Bagehot wrote about the monarchy in The English Constitution (1867). The same is true of the other European monarchies. 150 years on, with their formal powers greatly reduced, how has this ancient, hereditary institution managed to survive and what is a modern monarch's role? What theory can be derived about the role of monarchy in advanced democracies, and what lessons can the different European monarchies learn from each other? The public look to the monarchy to represent continuity, stability and tradition, but also want it to be modern, to reflect modern values and be a focus for national identity. The whole institution is shot through with contradictions, myths and misunderstandings. This book should lead to a more realistic debate about our expectations of the monarchy, its role and its future. The contributors are leading experts from all over Europe: Rudy Andeweg, Ian Bradley, Paul Bovend'Eert, Axel Calissendorff, Frank Cranmer, Robert Hazell, Olivia Hepsworth, Luc Heuschling, Helle Krunke, Bob Morris, Roger Mortimore, Lennart Nilsson, Philip Murphy, Quentin Pironnet, Bart van Poelgeest, Frank Prochaska, Charles Powell, Jean Seaton, Eivind Smith.

What has been the function of monarchy in the political and social life of Britain?