ROYAL NORWAY
Heir Apparent
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3 quotes (but only a small part) from this long Telegraph article from Dickie Arbiter:
Tupperware, television and tellings-off: my insight into a very private marriage
Dickie Arbiter also writes (as he has done before) about having lunch with HM, Philip and a lady in waiting at Balmoral shortly after he took the job - writing: ''Food was placed on the table in Tupperwares (from which we could help ourselves onto china plates) we enjoyed wonderfully natural conversation, and I even did the washing up with Her Majesty afterwards. “I’ll wash, you dry,” she told me, rolling up her sleeves. So I did.''
3 quotes (but only a small part) from this long Telegraph article from Dickie Arbiter:
Tupperware, television and tellings-off: my insight into a very private marriage
In a dozen years working closely with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh as a press secretary at Buckingham Palace, I witnessed a marriage of extraordinary fortitude and love. This is a relationship that has been through an awful lot over 70 years, but at its core it remains the same. Look at a photograph of Princess Elizabeth gazing at her dashing naval officer in 1947, then see the official portrait released for their 60th anniversary a decade ago. It is the same shared look of trust, adoration and unfailing support. They have always been there for one another.
Those flashes of mundanity, when you would see them like any other couple in the world, were always nice to see. In the summer they’d enjoy barbecues, picnics and rolling down the hills with the children. In later years, in the evenings, the Queen would settle down to watch television (racing, often, but it could be anything) while the Duke, who isn’t particularly keen on telly, worked on his computer. Weekends are always quiet, save for the church, and suppers are unflashy and brief: 50 minutes, no matter how many courses are to be served. Whenever it's possible, the simple life is preferred.
The children were all long-grown up when I worked for them, but when they were little, the Queen and the Duke did as best as they could to be ‘hands-on’. It’s possible to think of a first and second family. The Queen had two young children, three-year-old Charles and Anne, at 18 months, when she ascended to the throne. Juggling the pressures and strains of that, at 26, with parenting was difficult. It meant neither she nor the Duke could spend nearly as much time with the children as she would have intended. By contrast, when Andrew and Edward were born, in 1960 and 64 respectively, she and the Duke were a lot more settled, and therefore a lot more involved.
They’re two individuals who’ve achieved a number of records, but this landmark may be even more special than the others. Not that they’ll celebrate 70 years with much fanfare. It’ll be a quiet, family occasion with the children, a memory or two, and perhaps the odd joke. It's how they like it. Here's to many more.
Dickie Arbiter also writes (as he has done before) about having lunch with HM, Philip and a lady in waiting at Balmoral shortly after he took the job - writing: ''Food was placed on the table in Tupperwares (from which we could help ourselves onto china plates) we enjoyed wonderfully natural conversation, and I even did the washing up with Her Majesty afterwards. “I’ll wash, you dry,” she told me, rolling up her sleeves. So I did.''
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