Elizabeth The Queen - The Life of a Modern Monarch - By Sally Bedell Smith - Book Review - NYTimes.com Photograph by Lisa Sheridan/Hulton Archive - Getty Images Heir to the throne: Princess Elizabeth in Buckingham Palace, 1946. As a British expat trying to keep in touch with the old sod, I've acquired the slightly eccentric habit of buying coffee mugs recording key moments in the public life of our royal family. Alas, those celebrating the weddings of Prince Charles and Prince Andrew broke soon after their marriages fell apart. Not so the mug I bought for Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee in 2002. In fine bone china, no less than in person, she just keeps on going. This year she will celebrate the 60th anniversary of her reign, only the second Diamond Jubilee in British history. Queen Victoria's, in 1897, was the first. And along with, yes, more coffee mugs, the occasion has triggered a round of reverential royal biographies, including one by an American, Sally Bedell Smith. In "Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch," she curtsies before the British throne as deeply as a lady-in-waiting. This is not uncharted territory for Smith - she already peeped behind the palace curtains in her 1999 best seller, "Diana in Search of Herself" - but Elizabeth is a far more elusive subject than the former Princess of Wales. For her new venture into court life, Smith taps a host of public sources and tracks down friends and former courtiers of the queen who are willing to share more intimate tidbits (all too often about horses and corgis). But despite that, she faces a problem encountered, I suspect, by other royal biographers. Elizabeth has lived a remarkable life yet one that, quite frankly, is a bit dull to recount. Put differently, her somewhat dysfunctional family has provided far livelier copy. Partly to blame is her unfailing professionalism, which became apparent soon after her Uncle David, a k a Edward VIII, abdicated in favor of her father, Bertie, a k a George VI, in 1936. "Does that mean that you will have to be the next queen?" her sister, Margaret, asked. "Yes, someday," Elizabeth replied. "Poor you," Margaret observed. At the time, Princess Elizabeth was only 10. To even half-attentive royal watchers, the next stages of her life are familiar enough. She was tutored privately. She fell in love with her future consort, Prince Philip, when she was 13 and married him eight years later. She began royal tours when her father was ailing and was on safari with Philip in Kenya when George VI died on Feb. 6, 1952. She was crowned on June 2, 1953. She was 27. Since then, Elizabeth has reigned but not ruled. As head of state, she has presided over British involvement in a string of military conflicts, from Korea to Afghanistan. She has also received weekly briefings from successive British prime ministers: David Cameron is the 12th. But she is allowed to express no political opinion that has not been authorized by the government. Rather, her role is to personify orderly continuity from a majestic height. She has traveled the globe tirelessly. At home, she holds garden parties, hands out medals and honors, visits hospitals and goes to the races. This doesn't always make for exciting reading. Time and again, Smith writes of Elizabeth's "rounds of official duties" and "her familiar routines," her "morning obligations." That said, Elizabeth has preserved the myths and mystery of the monarchy by remaining aloof from her subjects. In private, close friends describe her as "straightforward and down to earth," with an excellent sense of humor. But the public at large has no way of knowing what she feels. Smith quotes a British politician, Richard Crossman, for guidance: "When she is deeply moved and tries to control it she looks like an angry thundercloud." Still, for all Elizabeth's exemplary self-­discipline, she has been unable to avoid the tabloid spotlight thrown on her family by the marital shenanigans of her sister and three of her four children. And since the queen was undoubtedly upset by these events, Smith can be forgiven for retelling the often salacious stories of secret lovers and mistresses and high-profile divorces. Only once was Elizabeth's own image bruised: in the days after Diana's death in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, the queen remained ensconced in her Scottish home at Balmoral, prompting bitter complaints from public and press that she wasn't sharing the nation's pain. Belatedly, she made a sober television address and joined the mourners, letting it be known that she had been caring for Diana's children, Princes William and Harry. But all this is well-trodden ground. Smith might have added depth by examining why republicanism has never taken root in Britain, why the British people feel so attached to the crown, why a Nordic-style popular monarchy offers no appeal to the British, whether the royal family symbolizes nostalgia for a once truly Great Britain - indeed, whether Elizabeth will be remembered as the last genuinely majestic figure to sit on Britain's throne. The answer to this last question, though, can probably wait. Now 85, Elizabeth appears to be in good health and ready for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations scheduled for June. 10, 2015, she will have been queen longer than Victoria or any other British monarch. And don't forget that her mother lived to be 101. My collection of royal coffee mugs looks set to keep growing. Alan Riding is a former European cultural correspondent for The Times. His most recent book is "And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris."