Queen Mum: More Than Just Gin
William Shawcross is a serious author; his study of Kissinger’s secret bombing of Cambodia was extraordinary. But his latest subject, the Queen Mum, is a tougher bird to carve up. In this authorized biography, we learn that Mum used public money to pay for 83 full-time staff, including four footmen, two pages, three chauffeurs, a private secretary, an orderly, a housekeeper, five housemaids… the list goes on and on. She even insisted that it was a legitimate use of public funds to maintain a full-time “Ascot office”, whose job was to keep a register of members of the Royal Enclosure and send them entry vouchers. What? No full-time Keeper of the Ascot Hat Closet?
