WILLIAM SHAWCROSS became a writer after leaving University College, Oxford, in 1968. He was in Czechoslovakia during the Soviet occupation, which inspired his first book, a biography of the Czech leader Alexander Dubcek, published in 1970. Since then he has written and travelled widely. In 1995 he wrote the BBC television series Monarchy. In 2002 his BBC television series and book, Queen and Country, celebrated the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and examined the changing face of Britain during her reign. In 2009 he published the national bestseller Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother: The Official Biography. He lives in England.
