If you are a royalty junkie like me, you will be exclaiming over all the new interesting facts and stories on every page. (And annoying your husband greatly by telling him every new fact on every page.) I really enjoyed the behind the scenes look at how stuff works - how one gets hired as a servant and how the servant hierarchy is almost more strict than the Royal hierarchy. The servants follow an incredibly strict precedence system which governs where they eat lunch! It all depends on who you work for and how long you've been there. I liked learning about the set-up for a giant banquet at the palace: setting up the giant table which must be polished by a footman wearing dustcloths on his feet; the 7-hour table setting time; measuring the place settings with a ruler; and the green light, red light system of serving food to the guests.
I found it interesting that the housemaids have to vacuum backward so as to vacuum over their steps, and that no vacuuming takes place before 8am so as not to wake up Her Majesty, or any other Royals which may still be sleeping. The footmen are in charge of taking out the Queen's flotilla of corgis for walkies every day, and as it is a highly despised chore, the newest footman usually gets stuck with the task. I think I would like my own valet, or dresser: they would lay out all my clothes for me every morning and take care of my (hopefully extensive) wardrobe. I am glad, however, that they no longer are required to actually dress the Royal in question - it would be very strange to have some person helping you on with your clothes like you are a 3 year old.
This book also gives great insight into why the Royals are like they are. You also learn a lot about the personalities of the individual Royals: the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana. Of course the Royals aren't like everyone else - they are surrounded by servants all of the time. There is always someone around to fetch and carry, bring lunch, take it away, carry out all the little errands, and all the other minutiae of regular life we just take for granted. It is just a totally and completely different world. This makes me wonder how Autumn Phillips is doing. She is a regular Canadian girl who met, fell in love with, and married the Queen's eldest grandchild, Peter Phillips (son of the Queen's only daughter, Princess Anne). (Despite the fact that his mother is a Princess, Peter Phillips doesn't have a title as titles are passed through the male line and his father, Captain Mark Phillips, does not have a title.) I am not sure what the servant level is like in the Phillips household (as currently they live in Hong Kong), but there would be more servants when the Royal Family is all together for holidays at Balmoral or Sandringham, and I can just imagine what a shock it must be to her. (On a happy note, Autumn and Peter are expecting their first baby in December 2010 - the Queen's first great-grandchild.)
It would be kind of neat to work for the Queen, even as a servant. One drawback - she doesn't pay very well. Prince Charles is where to go if you want the dough: he has the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall, so he can afford to pay his servants a little more. I would, however, LOVE to work for the College of Arms. This organization does genealogical research into both ordinary and aristocratic families. They are involved in tracing descendants of aristocratic families to bestow titles, and in establishing coats of arms. They even have genealogical information for the colonies, including the United States (a former colony) and Canada. Researching aristocratic and non-noble families? Sign me up!
In general, I really quite enjoyed the book and all its fascinating nuggets of royal information. One tiny quibble: I would have organized the book in a slightly different fashion. The book seemed to be divided between giving information about the Queen's household in general at all her properties and between being an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at Buckingham Palace. So there was some very detailed information about some specific things at Buckingham Palace, such as State Dinners, but then also other chapters on different types of servants and what it was like in the "good old days" for servants of Royalty. I would have appreciated a little more detail about the Queen's other residences comparable to what was being told about Buckingham Palace (such as Windsor) or maybe less detail about Buckingham Palace and more of an overall view. However, that does not detract from the fact that this is a very interesting book, not about the Royal Family, but about those who work for and with the Royals and what goes on behind the scenes.
I love how the book complements Cessna's fur colour ;)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really fascinating. You will have to tell ME more about it, instead of your hubby. I would love to hear all the tidbits. I loved the movie Gosford Park ... I can only imagine how much more fascinating it would be to catch a glimpse into an even grander household.
I think Cessna looks rather regal here as well.
ReplyDeleteIt is a really neat book - you should get it out of the library after I've returned it. I don't remember most of the tidbits now, but one is that the Queen doesn't have a driver's license and she is the only person in the Kingdom who is allowed to drive without one. Although she doesn't really drive on the road anymore - only on her private estates. I enjoyed Gosford Park too - this book also gets a little bit into the gossip between the servants and the various royal households. There are rivalries between the Queen's and Prince Charles' establishments.
Another interesting tidbit is that the Royals used to recruit footmen who were gay. They were seen as prime employees because they would be less likely to get married (and have to leave service because they were married) or to knock up the housemaids.