"The Queen Mother: Untold story of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon" by Lady Colin Campbell (2012

[scooter]

The author has a complicated sexual identity history of her own Lady Colin Campbell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Lenora]

The author has a complicated sexual identity history of her own Lady Colin Campbell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now I get the point, it worked out the old theory of Freud, via her weak point she tries to invent more about the others.

 

[Tyger]

Hi. Oh dear, I am going to go against the flow on this one - so what else is new?

Anyway, curiosity prompted me to look her up and even watch her on YouTube - and I am impressed. A woman with a difficult childhood that made her strong - and insightful. She sees behind the curtain - having been forced to live behind the curtain herself. Aristocratic in her own right. Articulate and amused - she is someone who tells it like she sees it - no apologies. An easy mark for people to make endlessly rude jokes about - yet she is clearly very very interesting - someone one would want to have a conversation with. Watching the YouTube snippet with her and Borat I have decided that she is now on my list of people I want to meet and have afternoon tea with.

She has a track record of 'saying it out loud' before anyone else -

"Colorful biographer Lady Campbell first annoyed the upper classes with her explosive 1992 biography of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Called 'Diana In Private', it was the first warts-and-all account of her disastrous marriage to Charles and came out shortly before Andrew Morton’s controversial biography.

Lady Campbell, also known as Georgie Campbell, later published a second book, 'The Real Diana', which revealed more shocking ‘secrets’ including a string of alleged affairs. Scandalous at the time, the book was derided by royal experts.

And then there is the matter of her roman a clef on Mrs Safra.

So why should this book be spurious? If true, it explains a lot about the Queen Mother. And she's not the first to say it - I know I've 'heard' this rumor before over the years here and there - just the first to explore it in depth and say it in the Queen's Jubilee Year. The cheek. I'm not saying it is or isn't true - just that the person who reveals the long established insider rumors is being pilloried for a reason. Of course it will be derided by royal experts - isn't that a given? In a country where lineage is all? Isn't she pulling aside the curtain - 'who's that man behind the curtain', and all that?

It is amazing if true - audacious if untrue (but not of her making though she is casting it abroad) - yet it has elements of authenticity. Certainly David and Wallis calling her 'Cookie' alone explains her anger with them.

I'd be interested in a real conversation about why this must be untrue, or how well Campbell's evidence for it stands up. Is it all hearsay - or does the hearsay have credibility?

 

[lucien]

Part of me doesn't want to even acknowledge this 'story', but it's being given significant prominence by the Daily Mail so is likely to become a source of some debate. A new book is apparently coming out which claims that the Queen Mother was actually born to the Bowes Lyons' French cook. I'd not take this one with a pinch of salt, rather a couple of shovel fulls:

Queen Mother: Fury over book's claim that her and her brother were born to family's French cook | Mail Online

Campbell is as daft as they come,one never knows whether she is going to or fro the institution...Oh well,poor dear.....she suffers of mental incontinence...c'est ca...

 

[COUNTESS]

Look, I never said Campbell's book was true or untrue. I just said that "Official Biographies", are only what the subject wants written about themselves and they are to some degree propaganda. I, suspect, that the Queen Mother hid, certain, things, she deemed improper for people to know about her. There seems to be a move afoot to make her a saint of some sort. She wasn't.

 

[Princess of Durham]

As I recall Elizabeth was referred to as "cookie" because she was rather plump and of course Wallis, who treasured her own VERY slim figure used it merely to annoy Elizabeth. I don't recall where I read this but it makes sense to me, at least as much as the Campbell accusation.

 

[Tyger]

I suspect that the Queen Mother hid certain things she deemed improper for people to know about her. There seems to be a move afoot to make her a saint of some sort. She wasn't.

But The Queen Mother's parentage is not a reflection on her character - surely the two are separate - no more than Lady Colin Campbell's unfortunate childhood (beyond her control) makes her 'worthy' of being the butt of jokes and degradation.

The Queen Mother seems to have been a woman who liked fine clothes, dressed well, had a flair and charm evident in all her pictures, had a sense of humor, liked her whisky and a smoke - am I correct? She also supported her husband and was a motherly sort, raising her own children and tending to her first two grandchildren in the absence of their mother. Seems all good overall - she did what was expected - and did it well. Why would who her mother was be a reflection on her character or 'sainthood'? I assume in all of this she had points of view, likes and dislikes, a salty tongue when called for and probably a temper. DNA: Human.

If true, this is more a reflection on the 'system' of bloodlines of the aristocracy - and I think that is what Campbell is also indicting - the fiction of the pure bloodline, going to the core of the class system. If true, its more about nurture than nature.

 

[EIIR]

Let's also not forget that this woman's main source with all of this is the Duke of Windsor. Now, setting aside the doubts some people have as to whether she ever met him and Wallis at all, does anyone expect the former Edward VIII to say anything positive about the Queen Mother? Given all the history and bad blood on both sides during that saga, I wouldn't put it past him to make up the most embarrassing and hurtful stories he possibly could.

She's taken a bunch of rumours, that she knows won't/can't be challenged by the people involved, and put them in a book that she knows will receive lots of press. It's a pretty low way of improving one's 'reduced circumstances'.

 

[Tyger]

Let's also not forget that this woman's main source with all of this is the Duke of Windsor. Now, setting aside the doubts some people have as to whether she ever met him and Wallis at all, does anyone expect the former Edward VIII to say anything positive about the Queen Mother? Given all the history and bad blood on both sides during that saga, I wouldn't put it past him to make up the most embarrassing and hurtful stories he possibly could.

Is that the case? It's solely from the Duke of Windsor? Meaning it originates from the 1930's and not before?

She's taken a bunch of rumours, that she knows won't/can't be challenged by the people involved, and put them in a book that she knows will receive lots of press. It's a pretty low way of improving one's 'reduced circumstances'.

I'm assuming you mean the author Campbell. From what I gather she is quite wealthy - owns 3 or 4 pretty nice places, one in London, one in the south of France. If that's 'reduced circumstances' I want to be so afflicted.

But I get your point. You are saying that this book is intended purely to make her money. Isn't that the point of any book?

 

[Baroness of Books]

There is that tried and true maxim: never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

 

[EIIR]

She's been defending her stories by saying that she got confirmation on many of them from the Duke of Windsor. His opinion on the Queen Mother is well known. I wouldn't believe a word out of his mouth.

The DM story says that she's had to move to a flat in a not so posh part of London. The 'place in France' doesn't mean much. Hundreds of thousands of Brits have places in France. Bought in the right part of France you can get an old farmhouse very reasonably.

 

[Tyger]

She's been defending her stories by saying that she got confirmation on many of them from the Duke of Windsor. His opinion on the Queen Mother is well known. I wouldn't believe a word out of his mouth.

The DM story says that she's had to move to a flat in a not so posh part of London. The 'place in France' doesn't mean much. Hundreds of thousands of Brits have places in France. Bought in the right part of France you can get an old farmhouse very reasonably.

This is what I read here: Caribbean BELLE Magazine - Regal Jamaican - Peter Jarrette visits Lady Colin Campbell at her London home, where she chats about her two sons, her career as a best selling author, the royal family, and what she has in common with Carrie Bradshaw

Relevant Text:
"In a quiet, upmarket quarter in the South London area of Kennington, there is a small walled garden shaded by a handsome fir tree. Secluded garden steps lead to a door next to a turret and at the top of that turret is the boudoir of the most gracious woman, the Jamaican born citizen of the world, Lady Colin Campbell.

Georgie, as her friends, new and old, know her, greets me with a warm and immediate hug. She flings open the garden door entrance to her London home and bathes my ears with her rich, cultured Jamaican accent, “Darling! How are you? You found me! We meet again!”

Lady Colin Campbell or Georgie Ziadie (to use both her less formal first name and her maiden name) has the ends of her tumbling blonde locks loosely wrapped in curlers, and only a scant application of foundation on her serene face. She is wearing a casual jersey top and dark denims.

Although London is her base, Georgie’s Kennington home sees her in residence only once a week for a day or three as she alights in London for business—publishing, media and of course shopping. Her second home is a stunningly large concern—a chateau in the south of France. Chateau de L’Algarie, in the Tarn region (the famous Roquefort cheese producing domain) is set in an idyllic parkland and is towered by ancient trees. Twenty kilometres east of Albi, the L’Algarie area boasts a treasured Cathedral, and has been named a World Heritage Site.

Halfway between her many-roomed, jaw-droppingly large chateau and her much more compact London pad is her apartment in Paris —a pied-a-terre that she arrives to from time to time. “...for the shops and the fine dining in the city of lights darling.” Our lady leads me into her objet d’art-filled Kennington drawing room."

 

[Mermaid1962]

The names are closely related, if not actually the same name in different languages. My father's middle name was James, but it was "Jacobus" on his degree. His university degree was written in Latin in 1951.

Actually, the father's name was not James, it was Jacob, or Israel as he was also known.

 

[COUNTESS]

The original, post from Excalibur, sounds, very anti-semetic.

 

[lucien]

She's been defending her stories by saying that she got confirmation on many of them from the Duke of Windsor. His opinion on the Queen Mother is well known. I wouldn't believe a word out of his mouth.

The DM story says that she's had to move to a flat in a not so posh part of London. The 'place in France' doesn't mean much. Hundreds of thousands of Brits have places in France. Bought in the right part of France you can get an old farmhouse very reasonably.

Confirmation by the Duke of Windsor...oh my...The biggest useless fart the Royal Family ever produced who changed his Empire for a US tart,now that's a thrustworthy source if there ever is one.....so impressed...!

It's as clear as chrystal that this Campbell woman is after maximum effect in a otherwise most splendid Royal year thus taking care of stashing pound sterlings in her purse along the way...A downright nasty and evil speaking woman....But I always trust on the good old;"What goes 'round,comes 'round",anytime.

 

[Tyger]

I just won't go there, just won't do it. Where there is anger there is self-interest. There is a saying: The moment one feels anger one has ceased to argue for the truth and begun to argue for oneself. Using such low-grade words to describe other people makes me wonder what is really being debated.

 

[NGalitzine]

I would love to hear her explain how she came into contact with the duke since he died in 1972 and wasn't really in the best of health for some time before hand. Did she actually interview him at some point in time or is she going off of what other people claim he said?

 

[COUNTESS]

In the BRF there are several tarts, some even British.

 

[MARG]

. . . . A woman with a difficult childhood that made her strong - and insightful. She sees behind the curtain - having been forced to live behind the curtain herself. Aristocratic in her own right.

Erm . . . Aristocratic in that she was married to, and divorced by, Lord Colin Campbell within a matter or 14 months or so.

I have to admit that a woman who trades heavily on her title, "Lady Colin Campbell", a title she uses by her own admission, out of sheer spite, is not someone in whom I would put great of stock. 14 months moving in the upper echelons of the British Aristocracy hardly gives her time to cement really good sources for her trash talk. As to the Windsors, well the Duke died in 1972 and dearest Georgie only married Colin in 1974. Hmm, did she perhaps strike up a very dear friendship with the Duchess? I don't believe I saw her name mentioned as a close friend in any of the many biographies about the Windsors.

. . . . In Georgia's case, this has led to repeated accusations of snobbery, which she icily denies. She did, she says, initially revert to her maiden name, until she heard rumours that she had been forced to give up her title.

'Now nothing will ever get me to give it up,' she says. 'If I marry 27,000 times, I will keep this crummy little name I loathe.' With that, she rises and leaves for her small flat on the edge of Belgravia.

Nasty divorces seem to run in the family - Opinion - The Independent

Her own words say it all. She is a very bitter "woman scorned" and seems to live to pour scorn and bile on women in the BRF who, rightly or wrongly, are admired or revered by the public. That she chose Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee to release this tome is no coincidence. She is going for major hurt and distress for the Queen and the rest of the family, defaming as she does, a loving mother, grandmother and great grandmother and trying to ruin the Queen's very good year!

I'd be interested in a real conversation about why this must be untrue, or how well Campbell's evidence for it stands up. Is it all hearsay - or does the hearsay have credibility?

What do you really think? The Queen Mother born of surrogacy? With eight elder siblings the question is why not how!

Queen Elizabeth cold in the bedroom? So frigid as to negate all chance of falling pregnant? How does Colin get to be the only person "in the know", "with the good oil" so to speak?

Queen Elizabeth, born of artificial insemination? Hmm, a quick read over the history of the science makes it more than a little unlikely, but more importantly, why? When she was born her Uncle David was going to marry and have children of his own. And, if he didn't, well there were still two younger brothers so having an "heir" was not imperative enough to risk a bit of "home baked" impregnation.

To be honest, there may be quite a lot of actual fact in this book but the utter drivel destroys what little credibility there is. The BRF are a really easy "mark" and I don't believe our beloved Queen Elizabeth will be even cold in her grave before the first bitter "scoop" by Georgie!

 

[NGalitzine]

Of course she would never give up using the title. It is her bread & butter. It is being "Lady Colin Campbell" that gets her books more attention than they deserve. If plain Mrs Georgia Campbell went to a publisher she would have had a much harder time getting such books published, and likely would have hard more rigorous scrutiny for her claims. Some assume because she is a "Lady" she must know what she is talking about when she writes about the BRF. Bollocks.

 

[Excalibur]

The original, post from Excalibur, sounds, very anti-semetic.

Please tell me you are joking, right? Because if you knew me, you would realize how utterly laughable the notion that I am anti-semitic.

The point of my post was to point out that in scripture, the King James Version of the Bible to be precise, that Joseph's father was referred to as Jacob, or Israel, but not James:

And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. Genesis 48:2 (KJV)

My knowledge of Latin is rudimentary at best, so thank you Mermaid, for pointing out that the names James and Jacob are so closely related. You learn something new every day -- even at my age.