The Queen Elizabeth Story

Elizabethan Devon. Nine-year-old Perdita, the rector’s daughter in the village of Broomhill, longs above all to see Queen Elizabeth. Her life is shaped by family, village work, seasonal customs and imaginative adventures that make the wider splendour of the reign seem remote.

When news comes that the queen’s progress will pass through the district, preparations transform the local community and bring courtly display into Perdita’s familiar world. Her eventual meeting with Elizabeth gives the historical monarch a child’s scale without turning the village into mere background. Sutcliff’s first published book presents the age through domestic observation and the excitement created when national history briefly enters ordinary life.