Flying and fun were fine – but Fergie ‘beyond the pale’
It could be summed up as the Duke of Edinburgh’s views on the three Fs: fun, flying and Fergie (Sarah Ferguson, former wife of Prince Andrew.) The first two he approved of, after a fashion: the third he resolutely did not.
A new biography of the late duke has revealed his innermost thoughts on subjects ranging from whether he thought his life was worthwhile to whether he was afraid of death.
However, it took a determined effort by its author, Gyles Brandreth, to get the duke to admit if he had ever had fun. In the book, serialised in the Daily Mail, Brandreth recounted how he asked Philip over a drink in Buckingham Palace whether his life had been fun.
Brandreth wrote: ‘‘Fun?’’ he snorted. ‘‘I don’t think I think much about fun. Do you think much about fun?’’
‘‘Yes,’’ I said. ‘‘Now and again.’’
‘‘Really? I suppose the polo was fun,’’ he conceded. ‘‘Playing cricket was fun, in the old days. The carriage driving is fun – when you don’t fall off the box seat. Then it’s just bloody painful.’ ‘‘
Brandreth asked whether his life had been enjoyable. ‘‘My life?
Enjoyable?’’ He screwed up his eyes. ‘‘I enjoyed flying. I enjoyed flying very much. I sometimes think I should have joined the air force instead of the navy.’’
Asked if it had been a good or worthwhile life, Philip said: ‘‘I don’t know about that. I’ve kept myself busy. I’ve tried to make myself useful. I hope I’ve helped
the duke told Brandreth why he and the Queen had not sat on the throne-like chairs provided during the river pageant. He said: ‘‘We’d have looked like Mr and Mrs Beckham, wouldn’t we?’’
After the Duchess of York was shown in a newspaper photograph topless as a lover sucked her toes in the south of France, Philip regarded her as ‘‘beyond the pale’’.
Brandreth asked why he refused to see her. ‘‘I am not vindictive, but I don’t see the point,’’ he said.
Philip: the Final Portrait