Myth and reality of the Queen

Press, 8 July 1976, Page 10

Myth and reality of the Queen

London It's a pity that, comparatively speaking, only a tiny handful of people have the good luck to meet the Queen in what one might call a relaxed and personal setting, and therefore discover that she is an extremely warm, talkative, entertaining and quite un-shy person: to find, in fact, that the actuality is quite different from the image.

For myself, nobody whom I have ever met struck me as being so different from what I had expected as the Queen. The marvel is that in spite of the over-controlled somewhat artificial image which they see and hear on the television screen on Christmas Day, millions of people, judging from what they say and how they behave, seem to divine what the Queen is really like, and to respond to it — otherwise she could not be so popular. It must be the smile. Her smile, quick and broad, tells infinitely more about her than anything she says. It counteracts the misleading effects of : a voice sometimes made taut (by nerves on big and public (occasions. > INFORMAL LUNCH ( From tame to time the .Queen asks a dozen or so .people from different walks (of life to have lunch with her ((and the Duke at Buckingham ((Palace. Compared with public occasions these lunches fare very informal. My home telephone went one morning and a very pleasant, chatty, voice said, “This is ... . ” — the Deputy Master of the Royal Household. “The Queen wonders if you’d like to come and have lunch. She suggests two weeks Thursday, but if you can’t what about next month? All right? Splendid. We’ll send you a card. Wear anything.” We stood around in a drawing room at the Palace, eight of us, with the Deputy Master of the Household and a Lady-in-Waiting, only long enough to take a drink from a tray before the Queen and I Duke came in. “You’ll know (when they are coming,” said (the Deputy Master. ! “You’ll heat* the dogs, and (then they’ll rush into the (room. The dogs I mean. They’ll curl up under your chairs at lunch. They’re the same colour as the carpet, so you’ve got to watch out not to tread on them. We once had an incident with a bishop. The dog meant to bite the leg of the chair, but he • bumped into the leg of the bishop on the way." From high up on the stairs outside the room came the noise of a bark, then a pack of corgies ran into the room. The sovereign followed, looking exceptionally pretty in a green dress, with the Duke alongside, looking as young as a midshipman. A brief word with the guests — “what are you up to at the moment?” asks the Duke —• then in to lunch. It is after lunch that you really get to meet the Queen. The simple meal does not take long, and when you go back to the drawing-room she talks for 10 or 15 minutes or so with the guests, two or three at a time. She really does talk. The previous day she had been to see a housing estate and she talked about that, describing the houses, and telling us about what the people who lived in them had had to say about tlem. She is a very good mimic, and laughs a lot. She talked about a number of other things, including the famous alleged “royal memory,” about which she told me a funny anecdote against herself.

Once she gets going she is; quite uninhibited and, I am relieved to say, by strict j standards, agreeably indiscreet. She obviously loves to talk, and particularly to j laugh. She is quite different I from what I had expected as! the result of a few entirely i formal “how do you dos" [ from her at public recep-!

itions, and from her appearance on radio and television. What is clear about her is that the ups and downs which have happened to her in the last few years have not sapped her natural good spirits and resilience. Newspaper and Parliamentary complaints about the expense of maintaining the j Royal Family, criticism of I their big houses, their poloplaying, their tax exemptions, and the marital problems of her sister, do not seem to have put lines in her face or reserve into her conversation. The impression she ■ creates in private is like her ! fantastic complexion, un- | clouded light and bright, radiant, innocent and natural. As I say, the marvel is that in spite of the interivening screens and plate- ! glass of etiquette, pomp and protection, so much of the real Elizabeth so authentically comes through. The (personality is proof against the miasma created by the media. O.F.N.S. copyright.

The Queen is now on a State visit to the United States and will go to Montreal for the opening of the Olympic Games on July 11. Kenneth Harris of the “Observer," who has interviewed members of the Royal Family, explains why her North American hosts will find her the antithesis of her media image.