Secrets of our warm and witty Queen
In 2012, businessman Shamsul Shelim met the Queen at the unveiling of a Diamond Jubilee Statue in Windsor to celebrate the monarch’s 60 years on the throne. The emphasis at the event was very much on the local community – the sculpture had been designed by a 14-year-old from Windsor Girls’ School and Shamsul had been invited to attend as the owner of the Viceroy Of Windsor restaurant.
The Queen – well briefed as ever – cut straight to the chase.
“Whereabouts in Windsor is your restaurant?” she asked him.
“Your Majesty, you did go to my restaurant once,” he replied. “Well, up to the front door of it anyway, but you didn’t go in.” Eyes twinkling, she asked: “Well how come I didn’t go in?”
Shamsul continued: “You were there in 2006 when you officially opened the East Berkshire College in St Leonard’s Road. Well, my restaurant is opposite the college.
“When your car stopped for you to get out and start the tour, it stopped right outside my restaurant’s front doors. Unfortunately for me, you got out and walked the opposite way…”
She then asked how long he had been there – and after he joked that he had just celebrated his Silver Jubilee and hoped to make it to his Diamond – the Queen and the restaurateur both laughed as she told him: “I hope to see you stay there longer.”
FOR nearly 64 years she has been our head of state – and in that time has attended more unveilings, official visits, garden parties, performances, sporting events and meet-and-greets than even she can remember. But for people who have been lucky enough to meet the Queen – some famous in their own right, some ordinary members of the public – those few moments with her will have been an experience they would never forget.
Author Chilli Brener has spent the past five years researching and interviewing dozens of people who have not only met the Queen, but exchanged words with her – and in a new book reveals exactly what the monarch said to them.
The result is by turns funny, heartwarming and illuminating – and reveals a very human side to Her Majesty. Here we retell five of their stories.