The Triumph of a Bon Vivant
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother by William Shawcross HarperCollins 1096 pages
Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon turned down Bertie, Duke of York, the stuttering second son of George V three times. Rumour has it that she didn’t want to join so dysfunctional a family. Or was she aiming higher, hoping Bertie’s charismatic brother, the future Edward VIII, would propose?
So why did she accept Bertie? This is the first of several unanswered questions in William Shawcross’ otherwise absorbing biography of Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother. But remember, this is the official biography and Shawcross, author of an incisive biography of Rupert Murdoch, is not retailing gossip but trying to put in perspective the life of the greatest royal star of the twentieth century. Women are now liberated, or so they say, but it was an old fashioned lady, a conservative, devout Anglican and dutiful wife who put the stuffing back in the monarchy after the near- death experience of Edward VIII’s abdication. Furthermore, by the time she died aged 101 in 2002 , she had defined a new royal era, the caring/sharing monarchy.
How did she do it? First, she had empathy aka charm, the ability to make others feel you understand them. No trivial gift when you have about a minute to impress yourself on people you’ve never met before and will never meet again.
Second, she was tough. Edward VIII and Princess Diana had charm too but it flowed from ego and vaporized under pressure. Elizabeth’s charm was anchored in her unwavering commitment to the monarchy and Britain. It also expressed her enjoyment of life. Observers note that she made a gala out of any event she graced. She was no glamour puss, but she had something more. Cecil Beaton, her most perceptive photographer, described her as being like a great artist “With an infallible instinct and an ability to make an asset of her own limitations.’
Third, she was smart. She’d had no formal education (and she balked at sending her daughters to school) but she had “intelligence du coeur”wrote a participant in the inflamed meetings over Edward VIII’s post-abdication bad behaviour. “Her reactions came straight from her heart – and a heart in the right place may be a very good guide.” During World War II, the King cut her in to his decision-making and she shared his weekly lunches with Winston Churchill.
Her self assurance came from her own family. Elizabeth was born in 1900, a year before Queen Victoria died, into a world that no longer exists. It was defined by the country-loving aristocracy like Elizabeth’s parents who shuttled between houses, one of which was the romantic castle of Glamis. The Strathmores were rich and unconventional. Her father, the 14th Earl, liked chopping up wood and visitors sometimes mistook him for an estate worker. When told that a ceiling was leaking in the drawing room, an unruffled Lady Strathmore suggested moving a sofa. Their nine children were were brought up to work but they also played hard, shooting and fishing, cricket outside, singsongs and charades inside.
Elizabeth’s brothers doted on their youngest sister. So did the injured soldiers of World War I sent to recuperate at Glamis which the Strathmores had turned at their own expense into a convalescent home. Teenaged Elizabeth brightened their lives, shopping for tobacco, playing cards, getting along with everyone.
Once married, she soon had her toxic father-in- law George V eating out of her hand too. When she apologized for arriving two minutes late for dinner, usually a hanging offence to the obsessive-compulsive King, he replied to general amazement, ‘You are not late my dear. I think we must have sat down two minutes too early.”
In 1936, Elizabeth’s mettle was truly tested. She had done wonders with shy Bertie: he blossomed once he was actually welcomed home rather than being shouted at by a hypercritical father. But a King! The new George VI cried for an hour on his mother’s shoulder when he got the news. Churchill may have been the architect of victory but keeping the home fires burning would have been harder with a wobbly King. Instead, the royal couple became inspiring figures as they toured blitzed London, Elizabeth saying – after narrowly escaping injury when Buckingham Palace was bombed- “Now we can look the East End in the face.” As her popularity soared however she always kept a step behind Bertie, a self effacement found moving by the poet/ politician A.P. Herbert. After watching her at the opening of Parliament he wrote “I do not know why/but the queen made me cry/she sat by the king/and said not a thing…”
Widowed at 51, Elizabeth was devastated to find herself retired. Luckily, she and her daughter got on splendidly for the most part, talked almost every day (“Her Majesty for Her Majesty” said the Palace switchboard) the Queen smoothing over an awkward transition –not least with money.
Atleast I think so because Shawcross doesn’t mention vulgar dosh. Yet it must be part of the back story because although Elizabeth looked like everyone’s favourite granny, off stage she was a real rocker. She shuttled between five houses, owned 12 steeplechasers, and aside from royal progresses to the commonwealth – she was invited 13 times by enthusiastic Canadians – she took lavish private sightseeing tours in Europe. A French host was surprised at the size of her retinue which included her hairdresser – because he’d broken his arm and never seen France.
And wherever she was she had to have a stiff dry martini or perhaps champagne. She was a generous host, her wide circle of friends included Noel Coward and Ted Hughes, and she was witty and a flirt with an eye for “someone worth putting on lipstick for”. Outspoken too. After dinner it was her habit to raise her glass to someone she admired. Her glass was always high, writes Shawcross, for Margaret Thatcher.
Elizabeth sure couldn’t have paid for all this with the measly $1.3 million doled out by an increasingly parsimonious government. According to The Daily Mail, this paid half the bill for the staff of sixty at her London house. Did Elizabeth have capital of her own? The Mail claims the Queen, whose personal fortune is assessed by Forbes magazine at $600 million, subsidized her. For the record Elizabeth left an estate valued at $140 million.
When she finally died, the government expected a modest turnout – after all, history was no longer taught in the schools. Instead, hundreds of thousands queued in bitter weather to view her lying in state, a quarter of a million lined the streets to see the magnificent funeral procession for the last Queen Empress of India. Ten million more watched on TV. Some may have wondered whether there will be another star like her. But there must be if the monarchy, which has been England for 1000 years, isn’t to be shuffled out of the pack leaving the country as just another Euro-weenie.
Note: The book weighs 4 lbs 5 oz and you can’t read it without breaking the spine. Even then I had to hold down the pages. No way to treat a Queen. Off with the publisher’s head.
