The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

When I last left you in the midst of my Jubilee Adventure I was on my way to the Marriott County Hall for High Tea with a mystery guest. On my way I stopped to have a manicure. After I got over the shock of 18. pounds plus tip for filing my nails and using Revlon over the counter polish, I had to deal with the shock of the gouges that came even after the magic-dry spray had supposedly done its job. Then I took the tube to Embankment as directed by the "Information" booth person. I ended up one stop past where I wanted to be - Westminster - and walked back in order that I might cross the bridge to the hotel. (Thankfully the buildings are so distinct, it was easy to spot where the actual landmark I was looking for was.) When I finally arrived I went into the Edwardian Library, which was magnificent! It was so lovely in fact that I forgot all about the nail and tube fiascos I'd just encountered and began taking photographs.

As I was early, I decided to write down some of the questions I wanted to ask my guest who arrived at 3:30 p.m. GMT on the button carrying with him a copy of his latest book: Princess Margaret: A Life of Contrasts. You guessed it - Christopher Warwick! He handed me the book, which he had taken the time to inscribe. I was on a cloud! It was definitely the highlight of my visit to London. He very kindly shared many stories of times he had spent with Princess Margaret over the 22 years he knew her. He described her, in part, as complex, modest and quite thoughtful. Then he shared some the stories that were in the book that he offered as proof of his perceptions. Interestingly, though this was the second official biography of Princess Margaret that he's written, this one is not a rewrite of the first, it is a completely fresh story written as if there were no other.

I'm enjoying the book now - savoring it really! In my humble opinion, Christopher Warwick is the Jane Austen of biographers because he never passes harsh judgment on or gets too sugary about the people he writes about. He lets their actions tell the story, not his opinion of what he has witnessed. This is something I'll have to get far better at if I'm ever to write a biography. I asked him how it was possible to write without injecting your own "slant" on a subject. He told me in order to write a biography that is worthy of its subject, you can't let your own personal feelings, prejudices or favoritism bias your writing or you will not present a true picture of the person and their life. I felt that he was disappointed when people did so as it was a discredit to both them and to the person they had written about.

Then I asked him how he decided to write a book and how he went about getting it published. He told me that it would only be worth writing a book about someone who had been written about before if I was sure I could bring something more to the portrait. If I were just going to rehash what others had written, it wouldn't be of much interest to the readers or to the publishers. When he wrote about Princess Margaret it was after meeting her and gaining her cooperation in the writing of the book. When he wrote about Edward VIII it was to coincide with the 50th anniversary the abdication. When he wanted to write about weddings, he followed a suggestion to go back two hundred years and wrote "Two Centuries of Royal Weddings". His advice seemed very logical and was extremely interesting to me. I'll be giving thought to a subject I can write a book on.

Regarding the publishing, he told me when I'm ready to write to find a good agent. Then prepare a synopsis of what I want to write. The agent will then shop it around to different publishers on my behalf. He believes that an agent is well worth their fee. A good agent understands the business and can represent your best interest to the publisher. It sounds to me like a good agent takes care of the business details so that you can take care of the artistic details like research and writing. 

Saturday I was unable to meet Gerald Grant, the heraldry expert, for breakfast as my media pass for the Colonel's Review of Trooping the Colour on Horse Guards Parade stated the gates would be closing by ten o'clock and as I wasn't sure how to get to Whitehall so I could enter the South Gate I thought I'd better not chance it. The Colonel's Review of Trooping the Colour was magnificent. My seat was on the lawn in front of the grandstands. There I sat mesmerized by what looked like an hour of synchronized swimming on dry land. It was amazing to see the way the soldiers marched in and out and round about in all different formations playing the best music the whole time. The uniforms were smashing as well. I especially liked the Scots Guard's kilts.

While there I sat next to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Cook. Mr. Cook is a retired member of the Royal Navy. Mrs. Cook told me that the way to tell the regiments apart is to look at their buttons. Some have evenly placed buttons, some have two together, skip a space, two together. It was very interesting to look at the subtle ways that the regiments differentiate themselves. Of course some, like the soldiers in kilts, need no introduction through their buttons. I took two rolls of film of this event though there are very few that are worth looking at. Even so, I brought the entire collection to work today to show it off.

Believe it or not, it is good to be home. As much as I enjoyed my big adventure in London, I realized that every day could not pass in the same way that the ten I'd spent there did. Coming home seemed peaceful and looking back over the trip will always be a highlight in my life.

All the best,

-- Eileen Sullivan --