Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch
Page 62
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. 14
4. 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.
102. The only other portrait: The Queen, by Rolf documentary.
103. “kind, natural and never aloof”: Pietro Annigoni, An Artist’s Life: An Autobiography, p. 84.
104. “watching the people and the cars”: Ibid., p. 82.
105. “alone and far off”: Ibid., p. 83.
106. Margaret praised the artist’s success: Ibid., p. 86.
107. The following year Margaret sat thirty-three times: Ibid., p. 96.
108. “Mine was better than hers”: Frolic Weymouth interview.
109. she visited the Oji River Leper Settlement: Gaumont British Newsreels (Reuters), “Royal Tour of Nigeria 1956.”
110. “qualities of grace and compassion”: Barbara Ward, “The Woman Who Must Be a Symbol,” New York Times Magazine, Oct. 13, 1957.
111. On May 11, 1956: Andrew Duncan, The Queen’s Year: The Reality of Monarchy: An Intimate Report on Twelve Months with the Royal Family, p. 152.
112. which some participants liken: Morrow, p. 91.
113. Once one of her corgis had an accident: Oliver Everett interview.
114. “looking very smart”: Eden, p. 230.
115. “She was dressed”: Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers, translated and edited by Strobe Talbott, p. 406.
116. “The Queen said to me”: Eden, p. 231.
117. “Nothing was kept from her”: Pimlott, p. 253.
118. “she understood what we were doing”: Lacey, Majesty, p. 212. 115 He began taking Benzedrine: Gladwyn, p. 198.
119. “edgy”: Pimlott, p. 255.
120. “I think the Queen believed Eden was mad”: Ibid.
121. “Are you sure you are being wise?”: Ibid.
122. “nor would I claim that she was pro-Suez”: Lacey, Majesty, p. 212.
123. “I don’t think she was really for it”: Gay Charteris interview.
124. “in such a bad way”: Gladwyn, p. 198.
125. Churchill, who criticized: Gilbert, p. 1222.
126. “the real enemy”: Ibid.
127. “it is most interesting”: Ibid., p. 1223.
128. “highly valued”: Shawcross, Q and C, p. 74.
129. “wise and impartial reaction”: Pimlott, p. 273.
130. “choose the older man”: Lacey, Majesty, p. 215.
SIX: Made for Television
1. “it would have been much simpler”: HRH Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip Speaks: Selected Speeches by His Royal Highness the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, K.G., 1956–1959, edited by Richard Ollard, p. 38.
2. “remote communities”: McDonald, The Duke documentary.
3. “by profession a sailor”: Prince Philip, Selected Speeches, 1948–1955, p. 105.
4. “allegiance to another”: Ibid., p. 148.
5. He pursued his fascination: Prince Philip, Selected Speeches, 1956–1959, p. 137.
6. “full set”: British Pathé newsreel, “The Duke Visits the Outposts.”
7. In a nostalgic touch: Pamela Hicks interview; McDonald, The Duke documentary.
8. “Philip’s Folly”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 225. 120 although he did send the Queen white roses: Ibid.
9. “willing to serve others”: Prince Philip, Selected Speeches, 1956–1959, p. 38.
10. “He has one of those minds”: Confidential interview.
11. “whole man”: Prince Philip, Selected Speeches, 1956–1959, p. 131.
12. “sub-health”: Ibid., p. 95.
13. The story of the “party girl”: Brandreth, p. 254.
14. “very hurt, terribly hurt, very angry”: Pimlott, p. 271, citing Brook Productions, The Windsors, interview transcript.
15. “It is quite untrue”: Irish Times, Feb. 12, 1957.
16. “nothing at all”: Prince Philip, Selected Speeches, 1956–1959, p. 43. 122 The idea had come: Pimlott, p. 272.
17. “Most of our people have never had”: Alistair Horne, Harold Macmillan, Vol. 2, 1957–1986, p. 64.
18. although she sometimes became irritated: Charles Williams, Harold Macmillan, pp. 293, 319.
19. “insti
nctive reverence”: Horne, p. 169.
20. “We all knew about it”: Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt, Vol. 2, p. 546.
21. “a mask of impenetrable calm”: Williams, p. 474.
22. “Victorian languor”: Horne, p. 308.
23. astonished him from the outset: Ibid., p. 14.
24. “a great support”: Ibid., p. 168.
25. “She never reacted excessively”: Lacey, Majesty, p. 217.
26. “be made to smile more”: Ibid., p. 218.
27. “had always assumed people wanted”: Ibid.
28. Dickie Mountbatten blamed the delay: Massingberd, p. 148.
29. “just as calm and composed”: Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day: The Best of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936–1962, p. 247.
30. “haven of security”: Dimbleby, p. 40.
31. “She let things go”: Gay Charteris interview.
32. Six-year-old Charles flopped onto: Eden, p. 201.
33. Clarissa Eden was mildly amused: Clarissa Eden interview.
34. “the natural state of things”: McDonald, The Duke documentary, quoting Pamela Hicks.
35. that Charles make his bed: Lacey, Majesty, p. 235.
36. “a very gentle boy”: Bradford, p. 329.
37. “not a vessel to be filled”: Hill House International Junior School Website.
38. being in a classroom with other boys: Dimbleby, pp. 32–33.
39. educating the “whole” child: Cheam School Website.
40. “Children may be indulged at home”: Dimbleby, p. 43.
41. “I always preferred my own company”: Ibid., p. 44.
42. He had no idea what was coming: Ibid., p. 49.
43. “dread”: Queen Elizabeth II to Anthony Eden, Jan. 16, 1958, Lord Avon Papers.
44. “not necessarily fitted to serve”: Time, April 8, 1957.
45. “tight little enclave”: “The Monarch Today,” National and English Review, Aug. 1957, pp. 61–67.
46. “efficient public relations set-up”: New Statesman, Oct. 22, 1955.
47. “to pit his infinitely tiny”: Pimlott, p. 281.
48. “a very silly man”: Time, Aug. 19, 1957.
49. “95 per cent of the population”: Ibid. In 1963 after Parliament passed a law allowing peers to renounce their titles, Altrincham would disclaim his and become known as John Grigg.
50. “real watershed”: Roy Strong, The Roy Strong Diaries, 1967–1987, p. 430.
51. By some accounts, Prince Philip: Sunday Graphic, Nov. 17, 1957.