"I'm three and you're four," the future Queen, then a child, imperiously informed her sister. The younger girl, not understanding this reference to their position in the succession, proudly countered, "No, you're not. I'm three, you're seven." The royal sisters had no choice in their historic positions, but behind the palace gates and within the confines of their personalities, they displayed tremendous individuality and suffered the usual symptoms of sibling rivalry. Edwards's book is an honest look at how the royal sisters feel toward each other, their parents, their close relations and the men whom they have loved. It openly discusses the romance of Elizabeth and Philip and the tragic aborted love affair between Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend, and it has a cast of characters ranging from the youthful sisters' suitors to Winston Churchill and the entire Royal Family. It is also the story of the making of a queen, of the high drama of her situation in the Townsend affair, of the real effect their uncle's abdication had on the sisters' lives, and of the internecine feuds that have brewed within the Royal Family since that time.
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