Elizabeth the Queen
Page 62
18. “my little lady”: Dean, p. 60.
19. “I like my rooms to look really lived in”: Morrow, p. 65.
20. “a bureaucrat’s dream”: Turner, p. 46.
21. “rather personal to oneself”: E II R documentary.
22. “a piece of 300 to 900 words”: Government chief whip to Mr. R. T. Armstrong, Feb. 22, 1975, National Archives, Kew.
23. “low wattage”: Mr. Bernard Weatherill, His Humble Duty [to HMTQ], Parliamentary Proceedings from Monday 14th February to Friday 18th February, 1972, National Archives, Kew.
24. “as well informed”: Morrow, p. 158.
25. Michael Adeane estimated: Pimlott, p. 401. 72 “If I missed one once”: Confidential interview.
26. “my way of meeting people”: E II R documentary.
27. she reverted to her nursery ways: Morrow, p. 92.
28. “She is not particular”: Confidential interview.
29. In her first gesture of modernity: Jonathan Dimbleby, The Prince of Wales: A Biography, p. 22.
30. “a final romp”: Dean, p. 172.
31. “Why isn’t Mummy”: Ibid., p. 173.
32. “For a real action man”: McDonald, The Duke documentary.
33. “wielded over the Sovereign”: G. Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria, p. 93.
34. “The Monarchy changed”: Brandreth, p. 215.
35. “Refugee husband”: Ibid., p. 147.
36. “Philip was constantly being squashed”: Ibid., p. 218.
37. “My father was considered pink”: Patricia Brabourne interview.
38. “the House of Mountbatten now reigned”: Hugo Vickers, Elizabeth the Queen Mother, p. 311.
39. “She was very young”: Patricia Brabourne interview.
40. “I am the only man”: Pimlott, p. 185.
41. “I’m nothing but a bloody amoeba”: Hugh Massingberd, Daydream Believer: Confessions of a Hero-Worshipper, p. 148.
42. “that old drunk Churchill”: Ibid.
43. “Churchill never forgave my father”: Patricia Brabourne interview.
44. “save her a lot of time”: McDonald, The Duke documentary.
45. “would submit entirely”: Dimbleby, p. 59.
46. “she was not indifferent so much as detached”: Ibid.
47. “her struggle to be a worthy head of state”: William Deedes interview (Jan. 20, 1998).
48. “In the first five years she was more formal”: Confidential interview.
49. she once attended a ball: New York Times, Feb. 8, 1996.
50. “How much nicer”: Nancy Mitford, Love from Nancy: The Letters of Nancy Mitford, edited by Charlotte Mosley, p. 291.
51. “must seem very blank”: Bradford, p. 169.
52. “engulfed by great black clouds”: Victoria Glendinning, Edith Sitwell: A Unicorn Among Lions, p. 299.
53. a small run-down castle: Author’s observations and tour by Nancy McCarthy.
54. “How sad it looks”: Aberdeen Press and Journal, Jan. 9, 2009.
55. “escape there occasionally”: Shawcross, QEQM, p. 670.
56. “The point of human life”: Ibid., p. 769.
57. “the great mother figure”: Beaton, Strenuous Years, p. 147.
58. “like a great musical comedy actress”: Roy Strong interview.
59. “pink cushiony cloud”: Cecil Beaton, The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, introduction by Hugo Vickers, p. 52.
60. “They were great confidantes”: Dame Frances Campbell-Preston interview.
61. “an Edwardian lady”: Ibid.
62. “A lot of the importance”: Confidential interview.
63. “The Queen Mother was always”: Confidential interview.
64. The two women deferred to each other: Margaret Rhodes interview.
65. “very much the Sovereign”: Nicolson, Vita and Harold, p. 405.
66. “millions outside Westminster Abbey”: The Queen’s First Christmas Broadcast, Dec. 25, 1952, Official Website of the British Monarchy.
67. “henceforth have, hold and enjoy”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 194.
68. “not those of a busy”: Beaton, Strenuous Years, p. 120.
69. “We took it for granted”: Gay Charteris interview.
70. “quite inappropriate for a King”: Bradford, p. 184, citing 98th and 99th Conclusions, 18 and 20 Nov. 1952, National Archives, Kew.
71. “What a smug stinking lot”: Michael Bloch, The Secret File of the Duke of Windsor, p. 279.
72. “like a phoenix-time”: Pimlott, p. 193.
73. “the emblem of the state”: Washington Post, June 3, 1953.
74. She met several times: Canon John Andrew interview.
75. “I’ll be all right”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 199.
76. “All the deposed monarchs are staying”: Mini Rhea, with Frances Spatz Leighton, I Was Jacqueline Kennedy’s Dressmaker, p. 162.
77. “and that takes a bit of arranging”: Deane Heller and David Heller, Jacqueline Kennedy, p. 81.
78. “a great big, warm personality”: Beaton, The Strenuous Years, p. 143.
79. “swathed in purple silk”: Baltimore Sun, June 3, 1953.
80. “She was relaxed”: Anne Glenconner interview.
81. “You must be feeling nervous”: Shawcross, Q and C, p. 182.
82. “Ready, girls?”: Anne Glenconner interview.
83. “plucked indiscriminately”: Baltimore Sun, June 3, 1953.
84. “backwards and forwards”: Beaton, The Strenuous Years, p. 144.
85. she gave a slight neck bow: British Pathé Coronation newsreel, Part 1, June 3, 1953.
86. “Lord Cholmondeley had to do”: Anne Glenconner interview.
87. “It was the most poignant moment”: Ibid.
88. “Some small interest was generated”: Baltimore Sun, June 3, 1953.
89. “The real significance”: John Andrew interview.
90. “gentleness in levying taxes”: British Pathé Coronation newsreel, Part 2, June 3, 1953.
91. “intense expectancy”: Beaton, The Strenuous Years, p. 144.
92. “Look, it’s Mummy!”: Associated Press, June 2, 1953.
93. “sadness combined with pride”: Beaton, The Strenuous Years, p. 143.
94. “She used to say”: Frances Campbell-Preston interview.
95. “never once did she lower”: Associated Press, June 2, 1953.
96. “Oh ma’am you look so sad”: Anne Glenconner interview.
97. “as a simple communicant”: Beaton, The Strenuous Years, p. 145.
98. Before leaving the chapel: Anne Glenconner interview.
99. “We were all running”: Ibid.
100. “anchored them in her arms”: Beaton, The Strenuous Years, p. 147.
101. “Elizabethan explorers”: William Manchester, Baltimore Sun, June 3, 1952.
102. “the Coronation has unified”: Earl Warren, governor of California, to Dwight D. Eisenhower, report on coronation, June 30, 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.
103. Future prime minister John Major: William Shawcross, Queen and Country, BBC Four-Part Documentary Series, 2002.
104. “It was a thrilling time”: Sir Paul McCartney interview.
105. “he was never anointed”: Jeremy Paxman, On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families, p. 125.
106. “television lunch”: Baltimore Sun, June 3, 1953; Paul Johnson, Brief Lives: An Intimate and Very Personal Portrait of the Twentieth Century, p. 111.
FIVE: Affairs of State
1. “She would pull on all sorts”: Jean, the Countess of Carnarvon, interview.
2. The Queen was driven down: Universal International Newsreel, June 6, 1953.
3. “marvelous sport”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 239.
4. “seemed to be just as delighted”: BBC Sport, June 2, 2003.
5. “Winston of course”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 214.
6. “Oh, racing”: Shawcross, Q and C
, p. 70.
7. “they spent a lot of the audience”: Mary Soames interview.
8. “I could not hear”: Lascelles, p. 430.
9. “mingled, with perfect facility”: Lytton Strachey, p. 33.
10. “Not a bit of it”: Nicolson, Vita and Harold, p. 405.
11. “What did you think”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 213.
12. “in a frightful fury”: Ibid.
13. “If it was a case of teaching”: Mary Soames interview.
14. “rather rough on the Poles”: Gilbert, p. 810.
15. “the strain”: Winston and Clementine Churchill, Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills, edited by Mary Soames, p. 569.
16. “fatigue”: Ibid., p. 570.
17. writing a lighthearted letter: Gilbert, p. 852.
18. “They want you”: Ibid., p. 884.
19. “prevaricated continuously”: Clarissa Eden, Clarissa Eden: A Memoir from Churchill to Eden, p. 142.
20. “a devilish bad equerry”: Lascelles, p. 211.
21. “It is not necessary for you”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 119. 96 “She would not listen ever”: Mary Clayton interview.
22. “Margaret was an awful tease”: Ibid.
23. “The Queen never shows off”: Kenneth Rose interview.
24. “unusual, intense beauty”: Kenneth Rose, Intimate Portraits of Kings, Queens and Courtiers, p. 273.
25. “in a black hole”: Pimlott, p. 199.
26. “deeply in love”: Lascelles, p. 398.
27. “formidable obstacles”: Ibid.
28. “fluff”: BBC, “On This Day,” October 31, 1955, news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday.
29. “This is most important!”: Lascelles, p. 399.
30. “employment abroad as soon as possible”: Ibid.
31. “stood on the sidelines”: Obituary of Peter Townsend, The Independent, June 21, 1995.
32. “the Queen, after consulting”: Lascelles, p. 400.
33. He was scheduled to retire: Ibid., p. 405.
34. “She strongly believed”: Elizabeth Anson interview.
35. By one accounting: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 206.
36. “She sees herself fused”: Brian Mulroney interview.
37. Sir Philip Moore, her private secretary: Oliver Everett interview.
38. “The transformation of the Crown”: The Queen’s Speech at the Luncheon in the Guildhall to mark her Silver Jubilee, Tuesday 7th June 1977, Buckingham Palace Press Office.
39. the Queen supervised the creation: Daily Telegraph, June 23, 2009.
40. “looked so young and vulnerable”: Coward, p. 222.
41. “the good of the world”: Gilbert, p. 942.
42. Otherwise, Elizabeth II watched: Gaumont British Newsreel (Reuters), “Fiji Hails the Queen.”
43. “Didn’t you LOVE this?”: Pamela Hicks interview.
44. “The Queen suffered through that”: Ibid.
45. “the Crown is not merely”: Queen Elizabeth II Christmas Broadcast, Dec. 25, 1953, Official Website of the British Monarchy.
46. Two keen listeners: Vickers, Elizabeth the Queen Mother, p. 329.
47. “He is intensely affectionate”: Shawcross, QEQM, p. 692.
48. by one count, three quarters: Shawcross, Q and C, p. 59.
49. “world’s sweetheart”: Pimlott, p. 222.
50. “The level of adulation”: Brandreth, p. 181.
51. “How moving & humble making”: Shawcross, QEQM, p. 691.
52. “I remember her complaining”: Pamela Hicks interview.
53. “never … a superfluous gesture”: Beaton, The Strenuous Years, p. 144. 103 “she has no intermediate”: Pimlott, p. 250.
54. “The trouble is that unlike”: Daily Mail, Sept. 16, 2008, excerpt from Killing My Own Snakes, by Ann Leslie.
55. “Don’t look so sad, sausage”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 209–10.
56. “What meaneth then”: Morrow, p. 44.
57. “One plants one’s feet”: Susan Crosland, Tony Crosland, p. 346.
58. “It was almost like a lady’s prop”: Phil Brown interview.
59. “is a very practical down-to-earth lady”: Confidential interview.
60. “I watched the Queen open her handbag”: Confidential interview.
61. “I’m always fascinated by their toes”: Morrow, p. 92.
62. “a way of relieving the boredom”: Turner, p. 63.
63. “Do come in, you have nothing to do”: Pamela Hicks interview.
64. To a gathering of scientists: HRH the Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Selected Speeches, 1948–1955, p. 82.
65. Her attendants noticed: Pamela Hicks interview.
66. “We were all pouring sweat”: Debbie Palmer interview.
67. “There are certain people whose skin runs water”: Pamela Hicks interview.
68. the new 412-foot royal yacht: Author’s observation; The Royal Yacht Britannia Official Guidebook.
69. “country house at sea”: The Royal Yacht Britannia Official Guidebook, p. 17.
70. “truly relax”: Ibid., p. 14.
71. “You may find Charles much older”: Shawcross, QEQM, p. 692.
72. “No, not you dear”: Holden, Charles Prince of Wales, p. 88.
73. The private reunion was warm: Pamela Hicks interview.
74. “enchanting”: Shawcross, QEQM, p. 692.
75. “No, Not You Dear”: Anthony Holden, Charles: A Biography, p. 15.
76. “One saw this dirty commercial river”: Gilbert, p. 976, citing Queen Elizabeth II reflections in Queen and Commonwealth, television documentary produced by Peter Tiffin, April 22, 1986.
77. “seemed less truculent”: Eden, p. 168.
78. “dragged out longer and longer”: Gilbert, p. 1124.
79. The Queen remained patient: Ibid., p. 1115.
80. “felt the greatest personal regrets”: Ibid., p. 1117.
81. “young, gleaming champion”: Ibid., p. 1121.
82. “never be separated”: Ibid., p. 1123.
83. “wished to die in the House of Commons”: Ibid., p. 1124.
84. “will ever, for me, be able to hold”: Ibid., p. 1127.
85. “to keep Your Majesty squarely confronted”: Ibid.
86. “the case was not a difficult one”: Ibid., p. 1125.
87. “Well, Ma’am?”: Eden, p. 190.
88. “the best looking politician”: Ibid., p. 122.
89. “odd and violent temper”: Cynthia Gladwyn, The Diaries of Cynthia Gladwyn, edited by Miles Jebb, p. 198.
90. “Anthony was telling her”: Eden, p. 215.
91. “They were chatting away and laughing”: Clarissa Eden interview.
92. “It is only by seeing him”: Daily Telegraph, Nov. 7, 2009.
93. “COME ON MARGARET!”: Christopher Warwick, Princess Margaret: A Life of Contrasts, p. 197.
94. In early October the Edens visited: Eden, p. 219.
95. “high place”: The Times, Oct. 24, 1955.
96. Although her sorrowful statement: BBC, “On This Day,” Oct. 31, 1955, news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday.
97. “in a cottage”: Rose, p. 189.
98. “selfish and hard and wild”: Bradford, p. 287.
99. captured her in seven sessions: “1954 Sir William Dargie: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” artistsfootsteps.com.
100. “straight back … never slumped once”: Ibid.
101. “a nice friendly portrait”: Laura Breen, “Dargie’s Wattle Queen,” reCollections: A Journal of Museums and Collections, Nma.gov.au.