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

[EIIR]

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

[Artemisia]

Thanks for posting EIIR, but my, what a ridiculous story!
It takes only a simple comparison of photographs of Lady Elizabeth and her mother to determine you are looking at a mother and daughter. Moreover, why would a couple who already had eight children need a "surrogate"? Surely, if they yearned for another child so much, they could just adopt one? Adoption might not have been common in aristocratic circles back then, but was certainly not unheard of either.

Mrs. Campbell can be anything but Lady she isn't.
Shovels of salt? Make it truckload!

[wbenson]

I don't want to disparage something I've never read, of course, but I must say that this book just moved down a few notches on my Amazon wishlist.

[elizabethkelly]

This will probably just be a flash n the pan, but this is the sort of thing that happened and truth is stranger than fiction. Very unlikely but it would be rather hilarious if it were true. Maybe this explains lady Elizabeth's numerous refusals when prince Albert proposed. She was worriedly would come out? Ok, I'm sureill get yelled at for that!

[NGalitzine]

No doubt the book will put a few more pounds in Lady Colins bank account which from her perspective would be the important thing.

[chelly]

I think if you look at the pic (that is linked a few posts) it will tell you the claim is false.

[Biri]

"The two Benjamins, as they were known in the Bowes Lyon family (in a Biblical allusion to the brother of Joseph, who was himself the product of a coupling between his father and his mother’s maid)"

What a lack knowledge of a Bible! Both Joseph and Benjamin were Rachel's children (Patriarch James' beloved wife; she died giving birth to Benjamin)
It were Dan and Nephtali who were sons of James and Rachel's maid, Bilha (and they were older than Joseph and Benjamin, Rachel agreed to this union because she thought she was infertile).

French name? It doesn't betoken anything yet.

[cepe]

As you cannot libel the dead and the BRF don't go to court, once the QM died it was always going to be open season on her character, life and achievements. We've had the film about Bowes-Lyon cousins and now this. There will be more.

[Artemisia]

The 'truth' about Queen's birth, by royal storyteller: But latest claims are pure fiction, say critics

Having made a series of outrageous claims about various royals over the years, aristocratic author Lady Colin Campbell is not afraid of controversy.
The eccentric writer provoked a storm of criticism when she asserted that Princess Diana had had an affair with King Juan Carlos of Spain. Then last month she surpassed herself with claims that the Queen Mother was the daughter of her family’s French cook.
Yesterday, she somehow managed to trump that – by declaring that the Queen and Princess Margaret were conceived by artificial insemination.

Well, she's no lady, that's for sure!

[NGalitzine]

Originally Posted by Artemisia

The 'truth' about Queen's birth, by royal storyteller: But latest claims are pure fiction, say critics

Well, she's no lady, that's for sure!

I would certainly doubt that she ever met the Duke of Windsor let alone interviewed him. The duke died in 1972. She married Lord Colin in 1974 and was divorced in 1975 after her gender reassignment story became news. I have a hard time believing she was moving in the highest social circles in London and Paris while the duke was alive let alone while his health was good enough to meet strangers and give interviews. She worked as a model before her marriage and her writing career began well after the end of the marriage and more than a decade after the dukes death.

The stuff she writes does have a market though and continues to add to her bank account. Never letting the truth get in the way of a good story pays.

[Lumutqueen]

Queen was born through artifical insemination - new outlandish claims by royal biographer - Telegraph

[Iluvbertie]

The story that the princesses were conceived by artificial insemination has been around for decades. I remember discussing it with my grandmother in the 1960s (as she remarried in 1969 and it was while she was living with my family I know it was the 1960s and she died in 1974). I was reading a book with her about the royal family and it stated that and I remember me asking what it meant and she was embarrased at being asked to explain that question - but she did do so.

The reason for the AI was always given as an inability to conceive naturally rather than the idea that The Queen Mum didn't want sex but the idea that the princesses weren't conceived by natural means was certainly doing the rounds in the 1960s.

[Biri]

This woman is even worse than Kitty Kelley; Kitty, at least, never writes about persons who are already dead and cannot defend themselves from defamation.

[Mirabel]

The French cook story sounds idiotic; Campbell claims the Queen Mother's parents were depressed because they couldn't have more children.
But they already had eight!

[Biri]

Seven in fact, because Violetta Hyacinth was already dead.

[Excalibur]

Originally Posted by Biri

"The two Benjamins, as they were known in the Bowes Lyon family (in a Biblical allusion to the brother of Joseph, who was himself the product of a coupling between his father and his mother’s maid)"

What a lack knowledge of a Bible! Both Joseph and Benjamin were Rachel's children (Patriarch James' beloved wife; she died giving birth to Benjamin)
It were Dan and Nephtali who were sons of James and Rachel's maid, Bilha (and they were older than Joseph and Benjamin, Rachel agreed to this union because she thought she was infertile).

French name? It doesn't betoken anything yet.

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

[Biri]

Allusions that Queen Mother didn't want sex is simply offensive; it straightly suggests that as if her husband (later King George VI) raped her, compelled her to sex by force. And he was in fact a delicate and shy man - such men, when they love a woman (who helps them to believe in themselves and supports them - and about Queen Mother we can say so) love her with all their hearts.

Sincerely, I feel really sorry for Queen Elizabeth that she cannot pull this "kind of a lady"'s hair for writing such an asquerous things about her parents!

If a woman doesn't want sex, nobody compels her to get married; she can become a consecrated virgin.

[Jacknch]

The more information published about the content of this outrageous book the better - it means people will hear enough about it through the media not to bother buying the book and sales will drop. Quite frankly, I am in favour of legislation preventing publications like this. I think it is disgusting that someone can discuss and publish such intimate and personal details (true or not) about someone else without their permission.

[Lenora]

Lady Colin Campbell is not about to apologise for upsetting anyone in her new, very unauthorised, biography of that national treasure incarnate, the Queen Mother.

Read more: Queen Mother book: Defiance of Lady Poison Pen: Vilified for her new book's lurid claims, an utterly unrepentant Lady Colin Campbell dismisses her critics as royal 'suck-up merchants' | Mail Online
What horrible insinuation, in another biography there was the same rumour about the artificial insemination, because of George VI's " inability" to have relations with his wife...
Probably there are no more gossips to attract the public's eye...

[chelly]

I have seen her in enough interviews that makes me not want to ever read her books.