Why the Queen hides the chocolates at Buckingham Palace
... And other deliciously indiscreet secrets from her loyal lady-in-waiting
We all have our precious memories from the Queen’s long reign, but as a friend of Her Majesty since childhood, those of Lady
Pamela Hicks are like no one else’s. The daughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten and a cousin of Prince Philip, she has had a matchless close-up view of the landmark moments of Elizabeth II’s life.
Now this former lady-in-waiting, who was also a bridesmaid at the Royal Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip in 1947, opens up to share her recollections. Almost 92, she is still a formidable figure and possessed of a devastating turn of phrase when she wants to make her point. Lady Pamela offers us brilliant entertainment as she reels off one anecdote after another in a no-holds-barred conversation with her daughter India (herself a bridesmaid to Lady Diana when she married Prince Charles in 1981). She was there to see the young Princess Elizabeth fall in love, witnessed the last-minute hitches before her wedding to Philip and was with her friend in 1952 when the sombre news came through that George VI had died and Elizabeth would ascend the throne.
But then came the intoxicating ceremony of the Coronation, and tours across the Commonwealth in the 1950s, brought to life here by archive footage and photos that evoke the period’s distinctive glamour.
Lady Pamela also talks with great affection about the private side of the monarch little seen by the outside world: she knows that Her Majesty is an expert mimic with a mischievous sense of humour and is capable of surprising pranks.
And she reveals a few of the Royal foibles, including how the Queen keeps her own box of chocolates away from the rest of her family – so that nobody pinches one!
But this is also the story of how both women have coped with tragedy, none worse than the murder of Lord Mountbatten by the IRA in 1979.
Lady Pamela’s tribute to the Queen is effusive, sincere and one with which Her Majesty’s subjects will surely all agree: ‘She’s an amazing person. There’s such inner strength there. And she’s remained like that throughout her life.’