Published to accompany an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in celebration of her 40 years on the throne, this book illustrates Queen Elizabeth II's varied activities and interests, both public and private, and the outstanding events and personalities of the period. It recreates such great occasions as the coronation and state banquets - British pageantry at its most spectacular. It provides an account of the Queen's constitutional role and investigates her changing relationship with the communications media and public, by showing how her image - as a constant presence in our daily lives - has developed on coins, banknotes and stamps, on television and in the Press. Glimpses behind the scenes at the organization of Royal tours abroad reveal the complex realities that lie behind the public persona of the monarch. The book also gives an insight into the personal side of the Queen's life, showing not only the treasures of the official Royal Art Collection, but also her private acquisitions, her wardrobe, her love of the turf and her home life at Balmoral, Sandringham and Windsor with her family and pets - illustrated by the Royal Family's own photographs.