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Louise Thomas
Editor
A royal biographer has explained why so many who met the late Queen Elizabeth II found themselves acting so strangely.
Craig Brown told an audience at the Henley Literary Festival - with which The Independent has joined as its exclusive news partner for the second year in a row - about how even the most composed and famous people often found themselves “discombobulating” as they met the monarch.
His biography, A Voyage Around the Queen, paints a picture of the Queen using tales from those who met and knew her during her 96-year life.
The Sunday Times bestselling biography describes how big-time politicians such as George Osbourne or Margaret Thatcher were left dazzled by the monarch, who had a level of fame matched by no other.
Mr Brown argues that this familiarity is perhaps why so many felt “giddy or woozy” and became prone to behaving bizarrely when they came face-to-face with her.
“One of the reasons people behave very oddly with the Queen I think is that they were so aware of her face from every angle,” he said. “Even in terms of myself I probably know more about that Queen than I know myself.”
The satirist, previously best known for his parodic celebrity diaries in Private Eye, added: “The Queen is a mirror of people’s expectations. It’s her they want to meet but it’s themselves they want to talk about.
“Almost everyone who met the Queen would come away remembering what they had said but had no idea what she had said.”
One of those who felt the “discombobulating” effect of the Queen’s fame in her presence was Michelle Obama, who met the monarch in 2009.
“Sitting with the Queen, I had to will myself out of my own head – to stop processing the splendour of the setting and the paralysis I felt coming face-to-face with an honest-to-goodness icon,” she wrote in her memoir.
“I’d seen Her Majesty’s face dozens of times before, in history books, on television and on currency, but here she was in the flesh, looking at me intently and asking questions.”
“Part of her charisma comes from extraordinary fame she had,” Mr Brown said at the event in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
“When she died you’d have to be about 102 to remember a time she wasn’t alive. Virtually no one in the world would have not known her face.”
Other anecdotes included one person accidentally eating her corgi’s dog biscuits.
Another was advised to “spend a penny” before meeting her as others had “had accidents” in the past.
Henley Literary Festival continues until 6 October.
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