King George V reigned over the British Empire from 1910 to 1936. As a young man George seemed uninspired, but his reign was immensely consequential. He faced a constitutional crisis, the First World War, the fall of thirteen European monarchies and the rise of Bolshevism. He reinvented the British monarchy, allowing it to survive and thrive when its very existence seemed doomed. The status of the British monarchy today, Ridley argues, is due in large part to him. She shows how George V managed to steer the crown through so many perils, and that Queen Mary played a pivotal role in the reign as well as being an important figure in her own right. -- adapted from jacket