More Prince William news
Well, it's from the Sunday Mirror, so it might all be untrue, but apparently he and Kate Middleton are 'on the rocks' again. This
bit caught my eye:
"They are in touch, but their lives are pulling in different directions"
You can picture the scene:
"I'm planning on inheriting the Throne when my father passes away. Where's your ambition?"
Labels: Royalty
Prince William dances with blonde girl at wedding
It's absolutely stunning
news, and surely hastens the end of the Monarchy/the Queen's abdication.
Labels: Royalty
Prince William has a curry
The news is
flooding in today. He expressed surprise at the size of the naan breads, and he drank 3 bottles of cider. Watch this space for updates...
Labels: Royalty
Diana, Tina Brown, Martin Amis
As my regular readers [1] will known, I am a great fan of Royal biographies. As the 10th anniversary (that doesn't seem the right word, but I can't think of another one) of Diana's death approaches, there has been a splurge of books about the Princess. Paul Burrell, her former Butler, has broken his silence about the Princess. Sarah Bradford has decided to give Royal biography a chance. And many others. Luckily Peter Conrad has decided to summarise most of them
here.
Tina Brown talks about her book
here. The article notes that Tina Brown (at Oxford, I think, though perhaps just afterwards) "had a succession of famous boyfriends, including Martin Amis and Auberon Waugh". No Randolph? I'm obviously far too young to know the answer to this, but were Martin Amis and Auberon Waugh 'famous' in the early to mid 1970s? I suppose if much of your fame comes from your father then you always are famous. Or perhaps if you date someone who becomes famous, that is enough.
[1] An increasingly domestic readership, I hate to have to tell you, as 8% of my readership has moved from the US back to England in the last week or so.
Labels: Royalty
The heir to the heir to the Throne's love life
Note: This blog post makes the assumption - that has held good now for at least 15 years - that anything written in the newspapers about the Royal Family is true, and indeed probably came directly from them.
The Sunday Mirror's James Whitaker explains the reason why Miss Middleton would not do - it was her Mother, or more specifically, her Mother's lack of breeding:
As they went on to the parade ground they did not do so discreetly. It was a triumphal arrival. And then, Kate's mother, Carole, proceeded to chew gum non-stop.
I was shocked enough. Goodness knows what the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family thought.
Then a few weeks ago I spoke to a close relative of HM who had spent the day with Kate. She said that although Kate was "a delight" there was great uncertainty about the mother. I was told: "The Queen couldn't believe it when, on introduction, Carole actually said 'Pleased to meet you'." Ugh!
Additionally, Mrs Middleton used the word "toilet" rather than lavatory and also "pardon" rather than "I beg your pardon" or even the more socially acceptable "what?"
These may be minor faux pas but they were indicative of Kate's upbringing. Solidly middleclass but lacking in the sort of breeding (what a revoltingly snobby word) so necessary in becoming a King's consort.
The News of the World, however, has a
different angle, which is that the Family decided at a top-level conference, led by Prince Phillip, that the risk of "another Diana" was too high. Now Prince Phillip is my favourite member of the Royal Family, but I'm not entirely sure he has grasped the fact that family conferences on who younger members of the Royal Family should date/marry is exactly the kind of behaviour that got them into the Diana mess in the first place.
Labels: Royalty
Kate Middleton
The Daily Mail today has a two page feature, headlined, "Wills' birthday plea over Kate - Leave her alone says prince as paparazzi turn out for royal girlfriend's big day". In it, the paper repeats a statement saying, "The PPC has a very strict guidelines in respect of privacy, harassment and photographing individuals...as always the Daily Mail will respect the letter and spirit of those rules".
It illustrates this article with three photographs - Miss Middleton walking to her car, Miss Middleton driving in her car, and Miss Middleton getting into her car surrounded by press photographers.
Labels: Royalty
The sheer "affrontery" of the disrespectful
From The Sun, August 1997:
Hol family's hate mail
CRIPPLED Carl Bullman has been sent hate mail after taking his family on holiday on the day of Princess Diana's funeral.
A poison pen fiend also accuses him of "affrontery" in cleaning his car the day before the service. The writer called him "thoughtless and ignorant" adding: "Everyone's in mourning. You mock her."
Carl, 39, and wife Tina watched part of the service before setting off with their three children for North Wales. He even pulled over to observe the minute's silence.
Police are quizzing neighbours in Bloxwich, West Mids. Carl said: "The holiday was booked weeks ago. We weren't being disrespectful to Diana. Like everyone we were heartbroken."
Labels: England, Royalty
Royal hagiographies
Sarah Bradford's
King George VI is worse than her Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. I'm quite willing to believe he had some qualities - the way in which he rescued the Monarchy after the disasters of the Abdication, an interest in the lives of his subjects that went beyond the vague awareness they existed of George V, his support in wartime for the Prime Minister. But this book seems to imply he had hardly any defects, with a lot of over-the-top puffery ('his Royal memory' - ie he remembered something about a person he'd met before) - and any faults he did have, such as his horrendous temper, are often passed off as amusing Royal quirks.
One particular instance is illustrative. Any royal biography that covers the reign of Edward VIII will tell you that one consequence of his louche lifestyle was that State papers were 'returned marked with rings from cocktail glasses on them'. Bradford introduces this story with what seems to be the usual amount of evidence for it, 'there were stories'. Later, p.489 of the paperback, we learn that George VI
showed secret State telegrams from our country's Ambassador to the Foreign Office, to the pro-German King of Greece who of course happened to be his relative. There is no criticism of this behaviour (which in turn raises the issue over whether you ever fully trust your Monarch if they have relations who are foreign heads of state?) - merely a mention that the Foreign Office though it 'bordering on the unconstitutional'.
Labels: defence, England, Royalty
St Bernard Dog
The Sunday Telegraph has a review, a bit late, of 'King's Counsellor: Abdication and War - The Diaries of Sir Alan Lascelles', aka "Tommy". The opening sentence is funny:
'Without vanity, I can say that my own impersonation of a St Bernard dog was the only histrionic feature of any real merit', writes Sir Alan Lascelles, Private Secretary to King George VI, of an evening of charades with the Royal Family at Balmoral in the late summer of 1942.
Labels: Royalty
