Curtseying men and a crocodile in a tin...what a royal tour!
In her 65 years circling the globe, Queen Elizabeth has seen some funny things. There was the time in 1961 when a little boy in Gambia presented her with a baby crocodile in a biscuit tin (it went to London Zoo). Or the time in 1970 when a panicky Australian man dropped a deep curtsey to her. Or when the wife of a local dignitary carefully poured gravy into her wine glass.
The fact that the Queen kept a poker face throughout is down not just to her legendary selfcontrol, but also to her belief that something important, almost sacred, underpins the British crown’s encounters with the rest of the world. In this warm tribute to her majesty abroad, Robert Hardman shows how Queen Elizabeth II has worked as a diplomat, stateswoman and peacemaker. Delving deep into the royal archives, the veteran reporter has unearthed a treasure trove of information, covering everything from the Duke of Edinburgh’s worst gaffes to dealing with a visiting president at Buckingham Palace who may or may not be a war criminal.
Although Hardman retains all the discreet good manners of a royal flunky, he’s not above passing on a bit of gossip too. In a rare interview, Andrew Parker Bowles reveals how in 1980, and already married to Camilla, he was in charge of bachelor Prince Charles’s visit to the newly independent Zimbabwe. The locals were determined the prince would be filmed riding a Cape buffalo that they swore was tame.
Like any good liaison officer, Lieutenant Colonel Parker Bowles insisted on trying out the animal for himself, and was instantly thrown, spending the next three days in hospital: ‘I always remind the prince that if the buffalo hadn’t gored me, and had gored him, things might be very different these days.’
Hardman is quick to put paid to false rumours, though. According to hit TV drama The Crown, the young Queen always kept a jealous eye on Jackie Kennedy’s glamorous appearance and tried hard to go one better. Nothing, says Hardman, could be further from the truth. The Queen, it is clear, doesn’t have a diva-ish bone in her body, and she regarded President Kennedy’s death the following year as a personal as well as a public tragedy.
The most surprising revelation is that her real haven was the Royal Yacht Britannia – the perfect ‘off-duty’ space where the normal protocols did not apply – a precious space indeed for someone who, as she heads towards 70 years on the throne, could be called a Queen of the World.