The East · Monarchies · People
During his visit to Kazakhstan, Pope Francis confessed that he had known nothing of Central Asia before, apart from the music of Borodin. To catch the link between, presumably, Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin and the Central Asian region, where the composer never lived, never served and never set foot, is rather
NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies
Monarchies · People · Pop Culture
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in a raincoat she designed herself. It was sewn by her friend, the couturier Jørgen Bender, in 1995 from a tablecloth that Margrethe had bought at the Peter Jones department store in London and brought to the atelier, asking him to make a cheerful garment
Aristocracy · Monarchies · People
Old Charles is not the first Charles III in English history. Under that name, in 1766-1788, there was known the Jacobite claimant to the English and Scottish thrones, the penultimate representative of the House of Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie. But the earlier Charles III had a rather joyless and
In the Press · Monarchies · Society
At the weekend in Edinburgh a woman was arrested for holding a placard that read: "Fuck imperialism, abolish the monarchy". In Oxford a man was arrested for walking out of a church during the proclamation of King Charles III and shouting: "Who elected him?" The police
NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Humour
Archive · In the Press · London · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
The other day I wrote about the piece in Elle on Elizabeth's childhood. The articles by the royal family's former governess appeared in various publications in Europe and the United States and astonished the public. The Windsors were astonished too, having given no permission for the
NB! · Books · London · Monarchies
Camilla's book blog, formerly the Duchess of Cornwall Reading Room, now goes by a far shorter name: The Royal Reading Room. The name of the website has also been promptly changed
Books · London · Monarchies · Mores · Nature · Ethnography
I wrote in my book about the tradition of telling the bees important family news and notifying them of deaths. The English have long shared their joys and sorrows with their bees, and at moments of family bereavement the hives, too, are dressed in mourning. If the little bee houses
Archive · London · Monarchies · Mores
The favourite amusement of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret was mechanical horses. Not, of course, that the girls had not been riding since earliest childhood, and Elizabeth simply adored all horses, both her own and those passing by their house, and the Guards' chargers too. She even said that, were
In the Press · London · Monarchies · Mores
In 1950 the French weekly Elle ran a long feature on the childhood of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, signed with the name of their governess, Marion Crawford. Marion relates how she came to meet the Duke and Duchess of York, son and daughter-in-law of King George VI, quite
London · Monarchies · Society
I should like to clarify that Camilla, who became Queen Consort, will after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II be styled Her Majesty The Queen. Evidently, the word "consort" is not to be pronounced; the status will be merely understood. Camilla's rank will be precisely that