Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the spring of 2008, Gina Centrello, president and publisher of Random House, suggested that I write a book about Queen Elizabeth II, to be published in conjunction with her Diamond Jubilee marking sixty years on the throne. I instantly said yes.

Elizabeth II is at once the most public and most private woman in the world, and my challenge was to show her private side while explaining how she has handled her public role—to portray her in the round, in many different settings, surrounded by a great cast of characters. As an American, I thought I could bring a fresh perspective, enhanced by more than a quarter century of frequent visits to Britain, which have led to numerous friendships and family ties as well.

This is not an authorized account of her reign; the royal family will not choose an official biographer until after she dies. But the staff at Buckingham Palace gave me invaluable assistance. They opened doors, offered guidance and information, and arranged for me to watch the Queen and Prince Philip in action—on overseas and domestic tours as well as at key events on the yearly royal calendar, including an investiture, a state visit, a Buckingham Palace garden party, and the Maundy Service. I also met the Queen at a garden party at the British ambassador’s residence in Washington and at two private parties at St. James’s Palace.

The Queen has a firm policy against granting interviews, but I was gratified that people who have known her from many angles—family, close friends, senior advisers, religious leaders, politicians, diplomats, world leaders, generals, artists, horse trainers, dog handlers, and estate managers among them—were willing to share their insights and knowledge. I also visited all the Queen’s homes in England and Scotland as well as the royal yacht Britannia, took a private tour of the Royal Stud at Sandringham, and spent the night at the Queen Mother’s Castle of Mey.

To conduct my research I spent six months in the United Kingdom, and I was blessed by the hospitality of my dear friends Joan and Bernie Carl, whose apartment on the top floor of their London home became the “writer’s roost” I had first enjoyed while researching my book on Diana, Princess of Wales. During my long stays, Pauline Taplin and Tony Stephens looked after me with care and thoughtfulness. For Joan and Bernie’s exceptional generosity, I am eternally grateful.

Of the more than two hundred people I interviewed, about forty asked to remain anonymous. I am indebted to everyone for taking the time out of their busy lives to assist me. Many thanks to those who spoke on the record:

Lord Airlie, Canon John Andrew, Charles Anson, Lady Elizabeth Anson, Lady Avon, Pamela Bailey, Ian Balding, Bruce Bent, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Peter Brown, Ruth Buchanan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Lady Frances Campbell-Preston, Lord Carey, Lady Carnarvon, Lady Charteris, Lady Mary Clayton, Mark Collins, Mina Jones Cox, the late Lady Cromer, Susan Cunliffe-Lister, Lady Dartmouth, Jackie Davis, Carolyn Deaver, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the 12th Duke of Devonshire, Lord and Lady Dudley, the Honourable Dominic Elliot, Isabel Ernst, Oliver Everett and Diana Jervis-Reed, Lady Falkender, Michael Fawcett, Catherine Fenton, Nini Ferguson, Stephen Frears, the late Lucian Freud, Lady Anne Glenconner, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, Didy Grahame, Lord Guthrie, Nicholas Haslam, Reinaldo Herrera, Lady Pamela Hicks, Min Hogg, Wesley Kerr, James Ketchum, Timothy Knatchbull, Simon Lewis, Lady Elizabeth Longman, Josephine Louis, Johnny Martin-Smith, Anita McBride, Sir Paul McCartney, David Metcalfe, Pete and Ande Metzger, Dame Helen Mirren, Paul Moorhouse, Howard Morgan, Peter Morgan, Lady Mountbatten, the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, Catherine Murdock, Sandy Nairne, John Julius Norwich (2nd Viscount), Robin Nunn, Columbus O’Donnell, Lady Angela Oswald, Sir Michael Oswald (including his tour of the Sandringham Stud), Debbie Palmer, the Honourable Shaun Plunket, Jonathan Powell, Lord and Lady Powell, Lady Rayne, Nancy Reagan, Lord Renwick, the Honourable Margaret Rhodes, John Richardson, Andrew Roberts, Monty Roberts, Tim Rooke, Selwa “Lucky” Roosevelt, Kenneth Rose, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Malcolm Ross, Lady Salisbury, Lord Salisbury, Richard Salmon, Jean Seaton, Kamalesh and Babli Sharma, Lady Soames, Sir Roy Strong, Kevin Sullivan, Marjorie Susman, Monica Tandy, David Thomas, Robert Tuttle, Benedicte Valentiner, Freddy Van Zevenbergen, Simon Walker, George “Frolic” Weymouth, Lady Wilson, Ashe Windham, Robert Worcester, Anne Wyndham, David Wynne-Morgan, and Amy Zantzinger.

On the Queen’s visit to Bermuda: Sir Richard Gozney (the governor), Kenneth Bascombe, Graham Foster, Ed Harris, Fiona and Marty Hatfield, and Dr. David Saul.

On the Queen’s visit to Trinidad and Tobago: Eric Jenkinson (the British high comissioner), Matthew Albert, Ulric Cross, James Dolan, Thora Dunbell, Rosalind Gabriel, Brian Lara, David Miliband, Lyle Pauls, Commander Andrew Stacey, Air Vice Marshal David Walker (master of the household), and Dwight Yorke.

On the Queen’s visit to Hull: Susan Cunliffe-Lister (the lord lieutenant of East Yorkshire), Elaine Garland (lord mayor), Bryan Bradley, Phil Brown, Alan Cook, Doris Gagen, and Maria Raper.

At Balmoral: Martin Leslie (retired factor).

At Sandringham: Tony Parnell (retired foreman).

At the Castle of Mey: James Murray (managing director of the Castle and Gardens of Mey), Christina Murray, Shirley Farquahar, Helen Markham, Nancy McCarthy, Grant Napier, and June Webster.

I would also like to thank Her Majesty the Queen for permission to quote excerpts from personal papers at the Castle of Mey.

Special thanks to the team at the Buckingham Palace Press Office for patiently responding to numerous queries and for kindly making so many arrangements on my behalf: Ailsa Anderson, Samantha Cohen, Zaki Cooper, Meryl Keeling, Nick Loughran, Ed Perkins, David Pogson, Colette Saunders, Jen Stebbing, and Peter Wilkinson, the Queen’s videographer.

I am grateful as well for the assistance of Paddy Harverson, communications secretary to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

I also offer heartfelt thanks for the support, hospitality, and ideas of friends and acquaintances alike: Piers Allen, Suzy Allen, Philip Astor, Geoffrey and Kathryn Baker, Bob Balaban and Lynn Grossman, Oliver Baring, Darcie Baylis, Peter and Amy Bernstein, Linda Boothby, Chris and Wendy Born, John Bowes Lyon, Graydon and Anna Carter, Victor and Isabel Cazalet, Robert Chartener, Jane Churchill, Caroline Clegg, Colin and Amanda Clive, Bob Colacello, Pat and Bill Compton, Mary Copeland, Jean Cox, Jim and Susan Dunning, John and Jodie Eastman, Jane Elliot, Michael Estorick, Barbara Evans-Butler, Pamela Fiori, Brian and Jane FitzGerald, April Foley, Tom Foley, Christopher “Kip” Forbes, Joanna Francisco, Mary Mel French, Alexander Gaudieri, Douglas and Sue Gordon, Sarah Gordon, Anne Greenstock, Debbie Haddrell, Rupert and Robin Hambro, Catherine Hamill, David and Kathleen Harvey, Rod and Kay Heller, Robert Higdon and David Deckelbaum, Patrick and Annie Holcroft, Lord and Lady Howard, Brit and Kim Hume, Brenda Johnson, Stanley and Jenny Johnson, Annie Jones, David Ker, Michael-John Knatchbull, Henry Koehler, Anne Kreamer, Tony Lake, Wayne Lawson, Mark Lloyd, Sharon Lorenzo, Jeff and Elizabeth Louis, Grant Manheim, Roz Markstein, Alyne Massey, Betty Mattie, Mike Meehan, Sir Christopher and Lady Meyer, Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, Liz Newman, Peggy Noonan, the Honourable James and Lady Caroline Ogilvy, Giulia Orth, Maureen Orth, Christopher and Ginny Palmer-Tomkinson, Christopher and Brina Penn, Helen Phelps, Justine Picardie, Olga Polizzi, Pat Roberts, Michele Rollins, Margot Roosevelt and George Girton, Bertie Ross, Charlotte Rothschild, Hannah Rothschild, Jim and Cindy Rowbotham, Martha Smilgis, Jeremy Soames, Bobby Spencer, Nadia Stanfield, Francesca Stanfill, Claire Stapleton, Will Swift, Miner Warner, Sandy and Patsy Warner, Margaret Westwood, and Jacqueline Williams.

My friend David Harvey deserves particular thanks for giving me a wonderfully vivid account written by his father, Major Thomas Harvey, private secretary to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, “Notes on the Birth of Prince Charles,” dated November 14, 1948. Carolyn Deaver, another friend, shared her sharp-eyed journal of the Queen’s trip to California in 1983. I am grateful as well to those who showed me personal letters from the Queen.

I owe a great debt to numerous biographers and historians, memoirists and diarists who have helped me appreciate how Elizabeth II has confronted challenges at various stages of her reign. Among the works that were particularly helpful were Queen and Country, an illuminating book and accompanying BBC documentary by William Shawcross, who also wrote the masterly Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography; Sarah Bradford’s Elizabeth; Gyles Brandreth’s Philip and Elizabeth; Jonathan Dimbleby’s The Prince of Wales; Robert Lacey’s Majesty and Monarch; Elizabeth Longford’s Elizabeth R; Ann Morrow’s The Queen; Ben Pimlott’s The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II; Graham Turner’s Elizabeth: The Woman and the Queen; and Hugo Vickers’s Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

William Shawcross was also a source of wisdom and encouragement, and Sarah Bradford, Robert Lacey, and Hugo Vickers kindly shared information and offered helpful advice, as did a number of other journalists and fellow authors: Sarah Baxter, Anne de Courcy, Roland Flamini, Flora Fraser, Robert Hardman, Rachel Johnson, Alan Jones, Valentine Low, Anne McElvoy and Martin Ivins, Peter McKay, Jon Meacham, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Charles Moore, and Justin Webb.

From my research in the late 1990s for Diana in Search of Herself, I drew on interviews with Jane Atkinson, the late Elsa Bowker, the late Lord Deedes, Roberto Devorick, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lucia Flecha de Lima, Andrew Knight, Andrew Neil, and Barbara Walters.

I am deeply grateful to Nancy Reagan, who not only shared her reminiscences with me over two enjoyable lunches in Los Angeles but granted me exclusive access to the personal correspondence she and President Reagan had with members of the royal family. Fred Ryan, chairman of the board of trustees for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, gave me good guidance, and Wren Powell, Nancy Reagan’s executive assistant, efficiently arranged my visit to the Reagan Presidential Library, where Joanne Drake and Mike Duggan assisted my study of the correspondence files.

This is the third time I have relied on the intrepid Mike Hill for essential research. Once again he rounded up books and periodicals and found valuable nuggets of information in presidential libraries. At the Virginia Historical Society, he combed through the diaries of longtime American ambassador to the Court of St. James’s David Bruce, with the assistance of Nelson Lankford. I was also fortunate to rely on the research skills of Jack Bales, the reference and humanities librarian at Mary Washington University.

My archival and periodical research in England was capably handled by Annabel Davidson, and Edda Tasiemka unearthed obscure clippings from her extensive collection.

I am fortunate indeed to have Kate Medina as my editor. She is patient, wise, and imaginative, with great instincts honed by experience, and I deeply appreciate her enthusiasm for this project from day one. Editor Lindsey Schwoeri asked perceptive questions about the manuscript and expertly steered the book through the publication process. Anna Pitoniak, Kate’s assistant, was invariably efficient and cheerful. Production editor Steve Messina supervised the meticulous work of copy editor Fred Chase and fielded numerous emails.

Gina Centrello’s publishing team at Random House is the best in the business—creative and smart about every aspect of Elizabeth the Queen. My thanks to Tom Perry, executive vice president and deputy publisher, and Sally Marvin, vice president and director of publicity, for their excellent ideas on promotion, along with publicists Bridget Fitzgerald and Alex Chernin. I am also grateful for the attentiveness of Avideh Bashirrad, Kelly Gildea, Erika Greber, Denise Cronin, Toby Ernst, Joelle Dieu, and Ken Wohlrob. Thanks as well to Laura Goldin and Deborah Foley, and to art director Paolo Pepe, jacket designer Belina Huey, and interior designer Susan Turner for making my book look beautiful inside and out. Carol Poticny once again threw herself into the task of photo research, resourceful and persistent as always. Thanks as well to my website designer, Shannon Swenson, and to Tony Hudz and Rosalyn Landor for their impeccable audio recording of the book.

I was delighted to have Max Hirshfeld, as congenial as he is gifted, back to take my author photograph, along with his lovely wife, Nina, stylist, Kim Steele, and assistant, Mike Jones—all of whom turned the photo session into a queen-for-a-day experience.

Amanda Urban, my longtime agent and treasured friend for even longer, has been my stalwart advocate as well as a fount of valuable advice.

In the middle of my research, my daughter, Lisa, was married in London at the Guards’ Chapel—only a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace—to a charming and brave English army officer, Dominic Clive. Their wedding on the Fourth of July brought together an exuberant Anglo-American crowd, which somehow gave this project an extra dimension of kismet. Lisa and Dom, along with my sons, Kirk and David, were a constant source of love and support, especially when I was immersed in the solitude of writing for more than a year.

After living through my six biographies for nearly three decades, my loving husband, Stephen, might be expected to show some impatience with the all-consuming nature of these projects. To the contrary, he was endlessly understanding, even when I left for long stretches of interviewing in London. He introduced me to English friends who helped me with ideas and further introductions. He buoyed me when I was feeling discouraged, making me laugh at least once every day. He happily shared my thrill of discovery. He offered astute suggestions about structure and writing. He edited my manuscript not once but twice on weekends and evenings when he was exhausted after long days of running a newspaper. As I was wrestling with options for a title, he came up with a brilliantly concise winner in about five seconds—the fourth time he has done so. Somewhat against his nature, he even agreed to provide comic relief when I wrote in my preface about his protocol infractions with the Queen. As an expression of my love and my everlasting gratefulness, Elizabeth the Queen is dedicated to him.

SALLY BEDELL SMITH

Washington, D.C.

July 2011