Biographer On Queen’s Bermuda Trip
A biographer of the Queen who was granted unusual access to the monarch during her 2009 visit to Bermuda says she saw a more relaxed side of her while on the island.
“Elizabeth The Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch” was written by Sally Bedell Smith, whose previous works include biographies on the Kennedy’s White House and Princess Diana.
In an interviews, the bestselling author said she spent three years researching and writing the book — being launched in conjunction with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – and Buckingham Palace had cooperated with her on project. “That enabled me to see her and Prince Philip up close,” she said. “I travelled with them to Bermuda and Trinidad.”
Ms Bedell Smith told Huffington Post Canada today [Feb.9] she experienced at first-hand the Queen’s increasingly relaxed attitude to royal etiquette while in Bermuda.
“She was raised from childhood to expect deference, but in the case of Americans, it’s far more relaxed,” said Ms Bedell Smith. “You can shake her hand, you don’t have to bow or curtsey. I had one funny incident … when I was in Bermuda with them and we were going from one place to another on a ferry boat.
Ms Bedell Smith Accompanied The Queen’s On Her Ferry Trip To Dockyard
“I asked if I could sit by the door and watch her do her walkaround. So I sat in a little corner on a banquette, and when she came in, instead of walking the other way, she walked right toward me.
“I was in this terrible quandary, because I know when the Queen approaches, you’re supposed to stand up. I thought, okay, if I stand up, I’ll be standing right in front of her and it’ll be incredible awkward. And so I just sort of sat there, and she walked by and she sort of looked at me, and Prince Philip walked by and he sort of looked at me, and David Miliband, who [was] the British foreign secretary, just sort of waved at me.
“I told her press secretary afterward and she said, ‘Oh, she probably laughed’. So the Queen expects to be deferred to, to a large extent, but something like that, she wouldn’t take exception to.”
The Queen visited Bermuda in 2009 to help mark the 400th anniversary of the island’ settlement — arriving here 56 years to the day after her first trip.
On November 24, 1953, Bermuda provided the Queen’s first stop on a major tour of the Commonwealth that followed her coronation five months earlier.
“Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch” was published last month to positive reviews and contains details gleaned from the 2009 official visit to Bermuda.
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