Pure poetry... screen Queen is jokey, but a little croaky
THe Queen cracked jokes yesterday as she appeared on video link, saying: ‘I am very glad to have had the chance to see you, if only mechanically this morning!’
The 95-year-old monarch was continuing with her new schedule of less taxing engagements, as she virtually awarded her annual medal for poetry from Windsor Castle.
Although she sounded a little croaky and perhaps slightly under the weather, she nevertheless seemed pleased to be back at work and beamed with delight throughout the call.
Referring to the award, she said: ‘I don’t know what you do with it, do you put it in a cupboard?’
Wearing a floral dress and a favourite string of pearls, topped off with a sweep of pearly pink lipstick, she awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry to David Constantine. The chairman of the judging committee, Poet Laureate Professor Simon Armitage, joined him at Buckingham Palace on the other end of the call. Mr Constantine, 77, told the monarch: ‘This evening I shall show the children and the grandchildren who are waiting in our house.’ ‘Well that will be nice,’ she replied. ‘Well, it’s rather a nice medal, isn’t it?’
The Queen remains at Windsor Castle where she has been ordered to rest and undertake only ‘light duties’ following her mystery overnight stay in hospital last week.
She has twice been seen using a walking stick in recent weeks.
Yesterday’s virtual event follows on from her telephone meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday evening – their first in three weeks.
She has twice been forced to cancel major public appearances in the past week – a two-day visit to Northern Ireland and her headline appearance at Monday’s Cop26 summit in Glasgow.
Buckingham Palace has insisted that she is in ‘good spirits’ and has cancelled her public engagements only out of ‘caution’.
It has declined to say why she was taken to hospital – just that she underwent ‘preliminary tests’ – but stressed that it wasn’t an emergency case.
It is not clear when she will be seen in public next, with Prince Charles stepping in to give her opening address to the Cop26 summit on Monday.
Instead, the monarch, who has made clear she wants the event to be a success, will this weekend film a video address at Windsor Castle to be played to delegates.
Mr Constantine is a poet, author and academic from Salford.
He has won awards for his short stories and one, In Another Country, was adapted into the Oscarnominated film 45 Years in 2015.
He was a lecturer in German at the universities of Oxford and Durham, and has published 11 books of poetry in a career spanning 40 years.
‘Will you put award in a cupboard?’