‘VERY LAZY’... ‘BANAL’... HIS SAVAGING OF THE WINDSORS

The diaries contain an undated memorandum Channon wrote about the personalities of edward, Mrs Simpson, Queen elizabeth and George VI.

THE EX-KING

I ALSO have always thought that Edward VIII suffers from sexual repression of another nature.

His horror of anything even savouring of homosexuality was exaggerated, especially in a world where it is far from unknown; and at the same time there are tales (I have heard them all my life and some I believe to be half true) which reveal him in quite another light.

Certainly, too, he has always surrounded himself with extremely attractive men. One knows almost in advance the type of man he would like — Fruity Metcalfe [Major Dudley Metcalfe, confidant and equerry to Edward VIII], Dicky [Lord Louis] Mountbatten, Sefton [Hugh Molyneux, Earl of Sefton], Mike Wardell [Chairman of the Evening Standard], Bruce Ogilvy [Earl of Airlie’s son], and even these he dropped as they aged.

Yet this infatuation for Wallis is almost dementia. I only pray that it lasts. But he takes up other things with violence — golf, hunting, flying, drink, and latterly gardening, and since Wallis’s influence, society and food. His amazing energy makes him indulge frantically in exercise and sit up all night.

This is typical of his one-track mind, his complete absorption in the interest of the moment. Perhaps — my God! — perhaps by May he will have lost interest in the woman for whom he has sacrificed the world.

WALLIS SIMPSON

WALLIS is a woman of charm, sense, balance, and great wit. She has dignity and taste; she has always been an excellent influence on the King who has loved her openly, and honestly. She would have been an excellent Queen.

We are far from being done with her yet. There is, too, a kernel of bitterness in her character which will always make her turn against her enemies and possibly revenge herself — certainly pour ridicule on them.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

I HAVE known Queen Elizabeth for 17 years, and at times, well.

She is well bred, kind, gentle and slack. She may have deeprooted ambition, but no surface trace of it.

She is fundamentally lazy, very lazy and charming, always charming, always gay and pleasant and smiling.

She has some intelligence and reads a lot, but she is devoid of all eye, and her houses have always been banal and hideous.

She can never resist a slightly spiky remark about the person she has just left; but it means nothing, and in the long run she is loyal and kind.

She will never be a great Queen for she will never be up in time! And also she is on too small a scale, and has little interest in human nature or anything else!

She has enormously improved her husband and has him completely under her thumb.

GEORGE VI

ALL his mature life he has been entirely under the dominion of his wife. He is good, he is dull, he is dutiful and good-natured. He is completely uninteresting, undistinguished and a godawful bore!

He stutters, tries hard to overcome this defect, and is devoted to his children whom he adores. He likes shooting and hates society and people, particularly witty or elegant or fashionable people who bring out his dullness.

So does she, but she is mildly flirtatious. I was once a little in love with her.

She makes every man feel chivalrous and gallant towards her but, of late, she has been growing much too fat.