Keeping in mind that there hadn't been a Diamond Jubilee since 1897 for Queen Victoria, and add the fact that in 2012 London was also hosting the Olympics, and you can see that the pressure was definitely more than "on" for the talented people in charge of her wardrobe. Mary Angela Kelly, LVO (born 4 November 1957, Liverpool), is a British fashion designer, dressmaker, and milliner, who served as Personal Assistant and Senior Dresser to Queen Elizabeth II from 2002 to the Queen's death in 2022. Her official title is Personal Assistant, Adviser and Curator to Her Majesty The Queen (Jewellery, Insignias and Wardrobe). She says little about her children and how she managed as a working single mother. A shame, since I would have been interested. She must have had family support as her job required long hours and much time out of London. She does write about her four grandchildren, especially the granddaughter who shares her love of clothes and clothing design.

Notes on Reading I once read that the Queen said "I am an ordinary person with an extraordinary job". And I believed it, but she's not. She's not like us at all. When Prince William, who is her grandson and second in line to the throne, got married and the invites went out the first thing all the women did was concentrate on getting the right outfit. I'm sure that Carole Middleton, mother of the bride, had the outfit, jewellery and accessories all sorted out months before. But the Queen only decided three weeks before that she'd like to wear something in yellow. Who does that?This book is a highly enjoyable read. To my knowledge, this is the first book sanctioned by the Queen written by a staff member; a current staff member at that.

I enjoy reading about the Royal Family. I found this audiobook on Hoopla shortly after Queen Elizabeth II passed away; and,

Customer reviews

If you know me, you know my love and obsession for the Royals and for fashion and this book covered it all! This book was on my Christmas list and although it is the second book of Angela Kelly and I have not had the chance to read the first one, this book gave an insight of what it is like to work for Her Majesty, The Queen. And oh how I wish I did! that the blue and yellow "EU" dress worn during the Opening of Parliament was purely unintentional!

And yet, when her long time Senior Dresser asked permission to write a book about working together, the Queen gave her enthusiastic approval, with (apparently) no strings attached. The Queen is a more intelligent woman than her mother and has a shrewd appreciation of the value of good publicity. She has the confidence to trust completely and it pays off. I wasn't expecting Kelly to disclose any deep, dark secrets. Some things as best left private. I did; however, learn a lot more about the Queen than I knew before, which made this a most enjoyable read for me. One crucial factor was the dress The Queen would wear for the momentous skydive. I had to be careful not to choose a colour that was strongly associated with any of the participating nations, too, so after much consideration, I chose peach. However, the colour wasn't the only factor, the dress also had to be designed perfectly to allow movement in the skirt as The Queen seemingly flew through the air." author Angela Kelly gives an in-depth, but dignified look behind-the-scenes as Queen Elizabeth II's Personal Assistant, Advisor and Curator (Jewellery, Insignias, and Wardrobe) since 1994; I absolutely loved this book! It may seem easy to imagine what goes into dressing the Queen, especially for the Diamond Jubilee Celebration which happened in 2012. I guarantee that you really cannot imagine the scope of what it took - what it still takes every day - to dress HRH the Queen.I'm not a clothes horse OR a follower of the Royals, but I was fascinated by Kelly's stories of her childhood as one of six children in a working class family in Liverpool. She started working at age fifteen and married and had three children by the time she was in her twenties. She was divorced when she was hired to take charge of the Queen's wardrobe.

Angela Kelly is no writer, there is no depth, no insight, no glimpses from the 'other side of the coin' of how the Queen "really" is. Since Angela makes a point of saying right at the beginning of how she is absolutely loyal to the official secrets act and would never breech confidentiality in even the smallest way all there is left to write about is the dresses. So that's what she writes about, since she did that already in another book, I ask myself, why was this book written? Anyway! The lovely woman who wrote this book talked about…clothing! Duh what she created with her own vision; what she saw in high end boutiques it’s just amazing. And of course it discusses their special friendship. Quite touching. DREAM JOBHer Majesty needed to look glamorous on every occasion: there must not be a 'stand-out' outfit that overshadowed the rest, especially since she would be visiting two countries. There were also cultural sensitivities to take into account: would any particular colour be considered offensive or inappropriate?" I would have been interested to read more in the book about the history of the position of the Queen's dresser over the course of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. Kelly notes that previous dressers did not keep records concerning the provenance of materials in the Queen's wardrobe and I would liked to learn more about the challenges Kelly faced in organizing the Queen's fashions when she began her role. In 2012 Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, 60 years on the throne, only the second English monarch to do so, Queen Victoria being the first. Even in an ordinary year she attends many events, but this year was special so more were planned, and her wardrobe had to be special too. Angela Kelly serves as the queen's personal assistant, advisor and curator of the personal jewel collection. She also designs most of the queen's wardrobe, including hats, but always with input from the queen. Everything has to be reasonably comfortable to wear, easily seen in a crowd. They start with the fabric which has to not crease or crush easily. They do special shopping, but start with the collection of fabric they already have, much of it bought on previous trips overseas as well as locally in the UK. The wardrobe is made in-house by dressmakers, with a milliner for the hats. A few of the photos are only of scenic locations (e.g. the Taj Mahal, the Sydney Opera House, etc.) with no one in the shots.