“Prime ministers come and go, but so long as he or she lives, the sovereign remains, receiving and reading all state papers and meeting once a week with the prime minister to advise, enquire, and comment - sometimes sharply, as was the case with Queen Elizabeth II and Mrs. Thatcher - on affairs of state.”

English-born writer and novelist

Michael Korda is an English-born writer and novelist who became editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster in New York City. He worked in book publishing as well as in fiction, bringing together editorial experience and a literary career. He is known for his writing and for his leadership at one of the major American publishing houses. His public voice comes from both sides of that work, as an editor shaping books and as an author writing them.