You look awfully like the Queen: Wit and Wisdom from the House of Windsor - Hardcover

Thomas Blaikie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007148747 ISBN 13: 9780007148745

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2002

Synopsis

For fans of the ‘Windsors’ and ‘Now we are Sixty’: a beautifully illustrated collection of amusing and affectionate stories from inside the royal family.

Arriving at the theatre, the Queen and the Queen Mother appeared to be having words. ‘Who do you think you are?’ demanded the Queen Mother. ‘The Queen, Mummy, the Queen.’

About twenty years ago the Guardian first published two camp anecdotes about the Queen Mother. Readers reeled to see stories actually printed in a national newspaper that until then had had only an underground existence in certain circles. After that, tales about the royal family became respectable; they were also, quite rightly, believed. Taken as a whole they reflect the contradictory roles we like royalty to fulfil: unworldly and impossibly regal or engagingly domesticated and just like us, or camp, worldly and outrageous.

In this affectionate tribute Thomas Blaikie has gathered together a compendium of stories, many of them never published before, which provide access to a unique world. How exactly does a Queen react when she finds her footmen draped in her jewels? What does she do to amuse herself as she whiles away the hours sitting for her portrait? And how did the Duchess of Windsor and the Queen Mother really get on? This beautifully illustrated book answers these questions and poses many more in its celebration of the diverse personalities of the House of Windsor.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Blaikie is a writer and English teacher. He reviews for the ‘Spectator’ and the ‘Yorkshire Post’.

From the Back Cover

Arriving at the theatre, the Queen and the Queen Mother appeared to be having words.
'Who do you think you are?' demanded the Queen Mother.
'The Queen, Mummy, the Queen.'

About twenty years ago the Guardian first published two camp anecdotes about the Queen Mother. Readers reeled to see stories actually printed in a national newspaper that until then had had only an underground existence in certain circles. After that, tales about the royal family became respectable; they were also, quite rightly, believed. Taken as a whole they reflect the contradictory roles we like royalty to fulfil: unworldly and impossibly regal or engagingly domesticated and just like us, or camp, worldly and outrageous.

In this affectionate tribute Thomas Blaikie has gathered together a compendium of stories, many of them never published before, which provide access to a unique world. How exactly does a Queen react when she finds her footmen draped in her jewels? What does she do to amuse herself as she whiles away the hours sitting for her portrait? And how did the Duchess of Windsor and the Queen Mother really get on? This beautifully illustrated book answers these questions and poses many more in its celebration of the diverse personalities of the House of Windsor.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0007148747
• ISBN 13: 9780007148745
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Gill Tyler
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112