Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

103. Future prime minister John Major: William Shawcross, Queen and Country, BBC Four-Part Documentary Series, 2002.

104. “It was a thrilling time”: Sir Paul McCartney interview.

105. “he was never anointed”: Jeremy Paxman, On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families, p. 125.

106. “television lunch”: Baltimore Sun, June 3, 1953; Paul Johnson, Brief Lives: An Intimate and Very Personal Portrait of the Twentieth Century, p. 111.

FIVE: Affairs of State

    1. “She would pull on all sorts”: Jean, the Countess of Carnarvon, interview.

    2. The Queen was driven down: Universal International Newsreel, June 6, 1953.

    3. “marvelous sport”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 239.

    4. “seemed to be just as delighted”: BBC Sport, June 2, 2003.

    5. “Winston of course”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 214.

    6. “Oh, racing”: Shawcross, Q and C, p. 70.

    7. “they spent a lot of the audience”: Mary Soames interview.

    8. “I could not hear”: Lascelles, p. 430.

    9. “mingled, with perfect facility”: Lytton Strachey, p. 33.

  10. “Not a bit of it”: Nicolson, Vita and Harold, p. 405.

  11. “What did you think”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 213.

  12. “in a frightful fury”: Ibid.

  13. “If it was a case of teaching”: Mary Soames interview.

  14. “rather rough on the Poles”: Gilbert, p. 810.

  15. “the strain”: Winston and Clementine Churchill, Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills, edited by Mary Soames, p. 569.

  16. “fatigue”: Ibid., p. 570.

  17. writing a lighthearted letter: Gilbert, p. 852.

  18. “They want you”: Ibid., p. 884.

  19. “prevaricated continuously”: Clarissa Eden, Clarissa Eden: A Memoir from Churchill to Eden, p. 142.

  20. “a devilish bad equerry”: Lascelles, p. 211.

  21. “It is not necessary for you”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 119. 96 “She would not listen ever”: Mary Clayton interview.

  22. “Margaret was an awful tease”: Ibid.

  23. “The Queen never shows off”: Kenneth Rose interview.

  24. “unusual, intense beauty”: Kenneth Rose, Intimate Portraits of Kings, Queens and Courtiers, p. 273.

  25. “in a black hole”: Pimlott, p. 199.

  26. “deeply in love”: Lascelles, p. 398.

  27. “formidable obstacles”: Ibid.

  28. “fluff”: BBC, “On This Day,” October 31, 1955, news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday.

  29. “This is most important!”: Lascelles, p. 399.

  30. “employment abroad as soon as possible”: Ibid.

  31. “stood on the sidelines”: Obituary of Peter Townsend, The Independent, June 21, 1995.

  32. “the Queen, after consulting”: Lascelles, p. 400.

  33. He was scheduled to retire: Ibid., p. 405.

  34. “She strongly believed”: Elizabeth Anson interview.

  35. By one accounting: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 206.

  36. “She sees herself fused”: Brian Mulroney interview.

  37. Sir Philip Moore, her private secretary: Oliver Everett interview.

  38. “The transformation of the Crown”: The Queen’s Speech at the Luncheon in the Guildhall to mark her Silver Jubilee, Tuesday 7th June 1977, Buckingham Palace Press Office.

  39. the Queen supervised the creation: Daily Telegraph, June 23, 2009.

  40. “looked so young and vulnerable”: Coward, p. 222.

  41. “the good of the world”: Gilbert, p. 942.

  42. Otherwise, Elizabeth II watched: Gaumont British Newsreel (Reuters), “Fiji Hails the Queen.”

  43. “Didn’t you LOVE this?”: Pamela Hicks interview.

  44. “The Queen suffered through that”: Ibid.

  45. “the Crown is not merely”: Queen Elizabeth II Christmas Broadcast, Dec. 25, 1953, Official Website of the British Monarchy.

  46. Two keen listeners: Vickers, Elizabeth the Queen Mother, p. 329.

  47. “He is intensely affectionate”: Shawcross, QEQM, p. 692.

  48. by one count, three quarters: Shawcross, Q and C, p. 59.

  49. “world’s sweetheart”: Pimlott, p. 222.

  50. “The level of adulation”: Brandreth, p. 181.

  51. “How moving & humble making”: Shawcross, QEQM, p. 691.

  52. “I remember her complaining”: Pamela Hicks interview.

  53. “never … a superfluous gesture”: Beaton, The Strenuous Years, p. 144. 103 “she has no intermediate”: Pimlott, p. 250.

  54. “The trouble is that unlike”: Daily Mail, Sept. 16, 2008, excerpt from Killing My Own Snakes, by Ann Leslie.

  55. “Don’t look so sad, sausage”: Longford, Elizabeth R, p. 209–10.

  56. “What meaneth then”: Morrow, p. 44.

  57. “One plants one’s feet”: Susan Crosland, Tony Crosland, p. 346.

  58. “It was almost like a lady’s prop”: Phil Brown interview.

  59. “is a very practical down-to-earth lady”: Confidential interview.

  60. “I watched the Queen open her handbag”: Confidential interview.

  61. “I’m always fascinated by their toes”: Morrow, p. 92.

  62. “a way of relieving the boredom”: Turner, p. 63.

  63. “Do come in, you have nothing to do”: Pamela Hicks interview.

  64. To a gathering of scientists: HRH the Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Selected Speeches, 1948–1955, p. 82.

  65. Her attendants noticed: Pamela Hicks interview.

  66. “We were all pouring sweat”: Debbie Palmer interview.

  67. “There are certain people whose skin runs water”: Pamela Hicks interview.

  68. the new 412-foot royal yacht: Author’s observation; The Royal Yacht Britannia Official Guidebook.

  69. “country house at sea”: The Royal Yacht Britannia Official Guidebook, p. 17.

  70. “truly relax”: Ibid., p. 14.

  71. “You may find Charles much older”: Shawcross, QEQM, p. 692.

  72. “No, not you dear”: Holden, Charles Prince of Wales, p. 88.

  73. The private reunion was warm: Pamela Hicks interview.

  74. “enchanting”: Shawcross, QEQM, p. 692.

  75. “No, Not You Dear”: Anthony Holden, Charles: A Biography, p. 15.

  76. “One saw this dirty commercial river”: Gilbert, p. 976, citing Queen Elizabeth II reflections in Queen and Commonwealth, television documentary produced by Peter Tiffin, April 22, 1986.