Book to reveal previously unseen Queen Elizabeth images

LONDON: Previously unpublished family photographs of Queen Elizabeth as a young girl are to be seen by the public for the first time.
A book being released this week to mark the birth of Prince George contains new pictures that show the Queen between the ages of two and four.
It’s clear from a number of the photos that her life-long passion for horses began at an early age.
One picture shows the Queen, aged around four, sitting astride her first Shetland pony, named Peggy, which was given to her as a gift by her grandfather.
Wrapped up warmly in a winter coat, hat and boots, smiling Elizabeth is proudly watched by her father, the-then Duke of York, who holds the reigns of the pony.
A second photograph, which was taken by her father in 1928, shows her pretending to ride a small toy horse in the garden of Naseby Hall, encouraged by her mother.
A third picture, taken that same year, shows little Elizabeth sitting in a wicker pram, holding the reigns of a miniature toy horse and cart.
It is now known that she began to learn how to ride win the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace when she was just three-and-a-half, before receiving her Shetland pony for her fourth birthday. She was able to ride unaided by the time she was six.
The collection of intimate family photos also includes a touching snapshot taken in the summer of 1927 at Balmoral showing “a very young Princess” taking “baby steps” while holding on to the hands of her mother, the Duchess of York, and her grandmother, Queen Mary.
Her mother had previously noted, “Elizabeth is learning to walk — very dangerous!”
The Royal Baby Book also includes pictures of the then- princess’s progress book, which recorded details of her birth in 1926 and her early days.
The Royal Baby Book: A Souvenir Album, which tells the story of royal babies from Queen Victoria to Prince George of Cambridge, is published by the Royal Collection Trust on Wednesday.