With the ubiquitous media coverage of the events, processions and elaborate ceremonies marking Queen Elizabeth’s death, there is no question that the British are the best at pomp and pageantry. From the queen’s lying-in-state in Westminster Hall to the funeral cortege borne on the state gun carriage of the Royal Navy, drawn by 142 sailors in a procession to Westminster Abbey, the final farewell was practically flawless.
I was astonished to learn that one man organised this extraordinary state funeral – the Duke of Norfolk, Edward William Fitzalan-Howard. For more than 350 years, his ancestors have passed down the ancient office of Earl Marshal. They are responsible for overseeing funerals of royal family members, coronations of Britain’s monarchs and openings of parliament.
Regardless of our feelings about the monarchy, it’s these hundreds of years of tradition, culminating in spectacles without equal worldwide, that provide a golden thread across generations of British royal ritual.
The queen’s 70-year reign will have many chapters in the history books. But it’s to fiction that many people turn, seeking to make connections between the past and present in ways that facts sometimes obscure. The Crown, one of Netflix’s biggest hits, had an instant, worldwide surge in viewers after the death of the monarch.
Historical novels have always had a strong presence in the book market because, as critic and essayist Megan O’Grady wrote in the New York Times, “historical fiction arises out of a desire to see the human project in a continuum, out of the belief that it is possible to tell stories about a vanishing past that bear on the immediate present, forged at the place at which the archives end and the author’s imagination begins”.
While readers await the inevitable resurgence of interest in royal fiction, there are some notable recent historical novels that throw unexpected light on the family life of the iconic queen.
In The Royal Governess: A Novel of Queen Elizabeth II’s Childhood, Wendy Holden brings to life the childhood years of Elizabeth. In 1933, 22-year-old Marion Crawford accepts the role as tutor to the little princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose. Her one proviso to their parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, is that she bring some level of normalcy into their sheltered and privileged lives.
At Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral, Marion defies protocol to take the princesses on tube trains, swimming at public baths, and on Christmas shopping trips to Woolworths. From her position at the heart of the British monarchy she witnesses some of the 20th century’s most seismic events: the shock of the Abdication, the glamour of the coronation, the onset of World War 2. She steers the girls through it all, as close to them as a mother. As Hitler’s planes fly over Windsor, she shelters them in the castle dungeons (near where the Crown Jewels are hidden in a biscuit tin). Afterwards, she is present when Elizabeth first sets eyes on Philip.
In The Queen’s Secret: A Novel of England’s World War II Queen, which opens in 1939, celebrated historical fiction writer Karen Harper, who researched her books extensively, focuses on Elizabeth, the queen mother, telling the story in her voice. As the wife of King George VI and the mother of the future queen, Elizabeth shows a warm, smiling face to the world. But Hitler called her the “most dangerous woman in Europe”. Behind her soft voice and kindly manner was a will of steel.
When in 1937 George was thrust onto the throne after the abdication of his brother Edward, who was determined to marry his divorced American lover Wallace Simpson, Elizabeth vows to do whatever it takes to make her husband’s reign a success. She endears herself to the British people, and stops the former king and his bride ever again setting foot in Buckingham Palace.
Much has been written about many of the royals, but little about the queen’s mother. This book tackles her story and is fascinating as much for what it reveals about her as the way it is told.
Through flashbacks to her youth and the beginning of her marriage, we are privy to Elizabeth’s thoughts, making her more relatable and realistic. She had her own secrets to protect, and was given a difficult task, but she stood up to the challenge, making it her life’s mission to support her husband. The novel also offers glimpses into the lives of young Lilibet and Margot, while focusing on how a matriarch manoeuvred her way through one of the most dangerous chapters of the 20th century.
In award-winning historical fiction author Georgie Blalock’s book The Other Windsor Girl: A Novel of Princess Margaret, Royal Rebel, she captures the life of naughty and haughty Margaret. The notoriously fast-living princess and “the Margaret set” are seen through the eyes of one of her ladies-in-waiting, the Honourable Vera Strathmore, daughter of an impoverished noble.
In dull, post-war Britain, Princess Margaret captivates everyone with her cutting-edge fashion sense and biting witticisms. The royal socialite, cigarette holder in one hand, cocktail in the other, sparkles in the company of her entourage of wealthy young aristocrats. But her outrageous lifestyle conflicts with her place as Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister.
Vera gains Margaret’s confidence and the privileged position of second lady-in-waiting to the princess. Finding herself at the centre of Margaret’s social and royal life, Vera watches the princess’s love affair with handsome Captain Peter Townsend unfurl. Townsend was divorced and the Queen did not grant Margaret’s request to marry him. Despite this, Margaret remained a devoted sister and loyal servant of the queen, whom she clearly adored.
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