King Charles agrees to give unprecedented access to his mother's personal documents

Svar Nanan-Sen
Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:17:16 +0000

King Charles has appointed historian Anna Keay to write the official biography of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

The 53-year-old award-winning author will be granted unprecedented access to the monarch's personal and official documents preserved in the Royal Archives.

Ms Keay, who also serves as director of the Landmark Trust, will conduct interviews with individuals who knew the late Queen intimately, including members of the Royal Family themselves.

The Palace's announcement follows years of deliberation at the highest levels of the royal household to identify an appropriately distinguished historian capable of chronicling the life of Britain's longest-serving monarch.

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Ms Keay studied modern history at Oxford University and has built her reputation through extensive work on British history, the Crown, and historic buildings.

Between 1995 and 2002, she served as a curator at Historic Royal Palaces, where she held responsibility for the unoccupied royal residences.

Her 2023 book The Restless Republic: Britain without a Crown, examining the country following the Civil War, earned her the Duff Cooper Prize for non-fiction and received a shortlisting for the Baillie Gifford Prize.

Her other notable publications include The Crown Jewels from 2012, tracing the regalia's history from medieval times, The Magnificent Monarch examining Charles II's ceremonial power in 2008, and The Last Royal Rebel, her 2016 biography of James, Duke of Monmouth.

Ms Keay described the King's decision to entrust her with this responsibility as a "profound honour" and expressed her deep gratitude.

"She was our longest-reigning monarch and an extraordinary woman, whose life spanned a century of great change," Ms Keay said.

"I am deeply grateful to His Majesty the King for entrusting me with this responsibility and for granting me access to her papers, and will do all I can to do justice to her life and work."

The historian sits on the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee and is expected to attend a British Museum reception next week, where the committee will unveil recommended designs for the national memorial honouring the late monarch.

Some historians have suggested the biography could be split into multiple volumes, with the earlier decades of Elizabeth II's seven-decade reign addressed first.

Such an approach would postpone coverage of potentially sensitive periods for the King, including the dissolution of his first marriage, the disgrace of his brother Andrew, and the departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from royal duties.

Before Ms Keay's selection, several prominent historians were reportedly under consideration, among them Simon Sebag Montefiore, Lord Roberts of Belgravia and Sir David Cannadine.

The late Queen maintained a handwritten diary throughout her life, once revealing she dedicated approximately 15 minutes each evening to the practice, though she declined to participate in recorded interviews unlike her mother.