Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

And for what it's worth, I think your theory is a lot better than the Redwood infestation.

Which is so bizarre that it was the Queen Mum's horse as well.

I mean, it would be bad for anybody, but of course that means even more headlines.

And Dick Francis, that was the end of his career, and then he went on to write a zillion bestsellers.

And my novel is about the two women at the center of this royal family drama.

Obviously, the American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, for whom the king gave up the throne, and her lifelong bitter enemy, Elizabeth Bowes Lyon.

who was married to his younger brother, and they became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England.

And then their daughter, Lilibet, became Elizabeth II.

You're welcome.

So you've written about so many fascinating historical women, from Anne Morrow Lindbergh to Truman Capote's glamorous swans.

What drew you to Wallace Simpson and Elizabeth Bowes Lyon in the first place, and particularly to their rivalry?

Well, this idea, I'm sure you the same thing.

Took you apart piece by piece.

It's quite a brutal way to go, isn't it? So Gina, on that at the moment, I'm talking into a microphone, but do you think this could have been the Queen Mum?

I don't think the microphone's that old.

Unless she jumped somewhere else first.

salmon.

Well, it sounds like a salmon behaviour, doesn't it? Or is she Kevin? You could be speaking into Kevin right now.

well, Kevin or Queen Mum or a regular windowpane.

It's just fascinating to think that we may or may not have the choice of how we come back.

I know at least the author sat on...

i think he somehow consulted or had an interview with the queen mother the queen elizabeth that's portrayed in the film and she had such bad memories of the time she had kind of requested that he sit on it while she was alive so i don't think so i have the feeling that this is a story that maybe historians overlooked and that kind of, from a populist perspective, kind of sat in a drawer until she passed.

Yeah, I found that same information, too, that it was ready to go when the moment was right.

And that was the moment that the royal family asked for.

Apparently they end their podcast with tinkety-tonk old fruit and down with the Nazis.

Well, as I was explaining to Eve earlier, that was borrowed from the old Queen Mum.

She used to end her World War II missives with that.

And I do think it's a cracker.

The new queen said to her mother, who loved Royal Lodge, said, look, don't worry, you stay there.

You can stay there for the rest of your life, which was a huge sort of consolation for the queen mother.

Yes, exactly.

And it all became very pink, very fluffy.

She just, she did what, she'd seen what she'd seen.

And she then actually, she then spent that weekend, because normally obviously she'd go down to Windsor, she couldn't do that.

So she spent that weekend with the Queen Mother at Royal Lodge.

And I think we get an indication of just how much, how hard this hit her because her thank you letter to the Queen Mother is published in Willie Shawcross's excellent biography of the Queen Mother.

This woman was Prince Philip's mother.

We all know about the Queen Mum.

So outgoing, so well publicized, so loving of publicity, in fact.

Well, we forget there was another Queen Mum.

Very eccentric, but also incredibly strong-willed.

Unlike the Queen Mum, Prince Philip's mother was born a princess, but turned her back on royal love.

You didn't think of Aunt Alice as a cosy old aunt.

You thought of her as somebody rather unique, actually.

So a couple of dorgies were knocking about as well.

And, of course, the Queen Mother had some as well.

One of them, Ranger, one of the Queen Mothers.

Ranger the

demon.

Is it because they like to stay in control? Is it they just don't like the taste? What is it about the royal family that makes alcohol not as appealing as we, I guess because we associate champagne with glamour and excitement, that's why we would assume they do drink?

Well, I wouldn't like to make any sweeping generalizations.

I mean, certainly the Queen Mother loved her drink.