Not as good as the first volume. It seems like the author wrote this in a hurry to meet some Netflix deadline. ( )

For fans of the show, this companion guide is useful in helping the viewer understand greater historical context as well as discern fiction from reality. However, I personally would not recommend the Kindle version. The book's formatting did not lend itself well to an e-reader with it's choice of fonts and the many photographs.

Also, I wish I had read it in conjunction with the various episodes . . .I think I would have gotten more out of it.

All in all, I'm not moved to purchase the second Volume, but I do think it was well done overall. Just not super interesting to me personally. For me, the show itself was truly enough. As the Acknowledgments say:

History, as Hilary Mantel has recently reminded us, is our imperfect way of organising our ignorance of the past. Imagination is our way of understanding it, and Peter (Morgan) has supplied both imagination and understanding in abundance.

True. And ironically because Morgan does that, it renders a companion book a bit superfluous.


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This is a great companion to the series. There were many times I wondered about something in the series and looked it up in the book. Great pictures and details. ( )

This is my favorite book of the year, after Notorious RBG and It's What I Do. Apparently this is a year marked by nonfiction works for me.

Broken up by episodes, The Crown The Official Companion Volume 1, calls out, in the first few pages, the viewers of the show who, like me, watched each episode for a second time while scrolling through various Windsor related Wikipedia pages. Interspersed within and between the chapters are character and event profiles providing further insight into how certain decisions, such as televising the coronation of the Queen, were determined. Pictures include both stills from the show alongside real photographs of Elizabeth and Philip.

With a budget of $5 million per episode, Netflix's The Crown is a sweeping historical drama that blows all others out of the water with it's focus on historical events and attempts to remain true to the personalities of the real-life people portrayed on the silver screen. And while the show is fictionalized in some regards, the official companion book makes it quite clear that Peter Morgan, the show's creator, did not have to deviate too far from real life to make his show so compelling.

The most fascinating biographies are those that are of people who have lived far from ordinary lives. Americans have always had a certain fascination with the royal family and "how the other half lives." The Crown The Official Companion is as much a detailed biography of Elizabeth II as it is companion to a popular show.

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I haven’t watched the series “The Crown” to which this is an accompaniment, but I very much enjoyed this historical account of the early life and reign of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, and also of those who shaped her life and reign. It was very enlightening as this was a lot of the time from just before I was born, and therefore I was less aware of this part of her life.

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