| Welcome to Royal Watch.
After busy weeks of royal health news, the King and Princess of Wales left hospital and went home to start their recoveries.
This means, at least in the short term, Queen Camilla is now the most senior royal carrying out engagements. That has included an unusual literary event in Windsor Castle, where authors had contributed tiny versions of their books for a dolls’ house library.
From the US there was a story about actor Bob Odenkirk being related to King Charles. But how unusual is such a connection? |
|
|
|
| | | Did the King help cover for Kate? | King Charles and the Princess of Wales left The London Clinic on the same day this week - much like the announcements of their hospital procedurescame on the same day two weeks ago.
Was this choreographed by the King to deflect some of the attention away from his daughter-in-law Catherine?
While the King walked out the front door and waved to the cameras, Catherine was whisked back to her home in Windsor without any chance of being spotted by the public. |
|  | | King Charles left The London Clinic on Monday with Queen Camilla by his side. Credit: Reuters/Hannah McKay |
| | The King will be postponing any public engagements while he recovers from his prostate procedure. His absence is likely to be a matter of weeks, while Catherine’s recuperation from abdominal surgery will take months. |
| | We don’t know exactly what Catherine was treated for, but it’s clearly serious enough for a prolonged hospital stay and a long time recovering in Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor estate. |
|  | | Adelaide Cottage is located on the Windsor estate, near Windsor Castle. Credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images |
| | Prince William will be spending more time supporting his wife and their children. So, in the coming weeks we won’t see much of the King or the Prince and Princess of Wales. |
| | That puts Queen Camilla into the spotlight. She’s taken on the baton, carrying out a series of engagements, as the most senior royal still in action. |
|  | | Queen Camilla attended a number of engagements this week. Credit: Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool via Reuters |
| | It’s another reminder of her remarkable journey in from the cold. Twenty years ago Camilla wasn’t even part of the Royal Family. After marrying Charles in 2005, she’s now the Queen and very much centre stage. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | | Short stories for an even shorter library | There’s something strangely fascinating about familiar things in a miniature form. That’s why people wander around model villages like amused giants, marvelling at the change in perspective.
A royal dolls’ house in Windsor Castle, built 100 years ago, takes that to the ultimate level.
Queen Mary’s dolls’ house was designed as a diminutive showcase of the arts and industries of the era, packed with micro-scale furniture and decorations, working electricity and running water. There’s even a tiny replica of the Crown Jewels with real gems. |
|  | | On display with the dolls’ house will be a miniature crown as well as a grand piano, vacuum cleaner, and sewing machine. Credit: Royal Collection Trust |
| | But there has been another addition this week with new books in the miniature library. In the 1920s it was stocked with works by writers such as Thomas Hardy and AA Milne. |
| | But now 20 new books, 4.5cm high, are being added by more modern authors, including Alan Bennett, Sir Tom Stoppard and Sebastian Faulks. |
|
|  | | Queen Mary’s dolls’ house was created in the 1920s and filled with books by contemporary authors. Credit: Royal Collection Trust |
| | “For me, it is the library that is the most breath-taking space in the house,” says Queen Camilla, who has contributed a book to the collection, in the form of a perfectly-bound introduction to this library project. |
|  | | Modern authors including Elif Shafak and Philippa Gregory have been added to the tiny library. Credit: Royal Collection Trust |
|  | | A picture of Queen Camilla's miniature book for the tiny library. Credit: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Wire |
| | She held a reception this week for writers of these shortest stories, and during 2024 visitors to Windsor Castle can see a special display showing the contents of the dolls’ house. |
|  | | The house also has a fully stocked wine cellar filled with bottles of fine wine, champagne, London gin and barrels of whiskey. Credit: Royal Collection Trust |
| |
|
|
|
| | Potent-shell captions | Last week, we shared with you this image and you sent us possible captions.
They ranged from tips about how to live a long life from 192-year-old tortoise Jonathan, to jokes about the Tortoise and the Hair-less.
Our favourites were: “Looking forward to meeting your grandchildren” from Jane Hands and "You're never going to make it to my age mate, you move too fast” from David Savage.
Thanks all, we love receiving your responses. |  | | Credit: St Helena Island/FINN Partners |
| |
|
|
| Are you related to the royals? | Tony Benn, left-wing politician and author, used to like showing visitors a rather dusty looking tube. When you asked what it was he’d tell you it was his aristocratic blood, taken before he renounced his peerage in 1963.
His point was that the idea of aristocratic blue blood was nonsense, that he was the same before and after getting rid of his title. |
|  | | Tony Benn was a British Labour politician who campaigned for the ability to renounce his father’s title, and continue serving in the House of Commons. Credit: Fiona Hanson/PA |
| | But the fascination with posh connections isn’t easily extinguished. |
| | This week we heard that actor Bob Odenkirk, from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, had found he was the 11th cousin of King Charles. Discovered in a forthcoming genealogy TV show in the US, the relationship was via an 18th Century German ancestor of the actor, the Duke of Plon. |
|
|  | | Bob Odenkirk starred as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and then its spin-off show Better Call Saul. Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni |
| | The BBC’s family history series, Who Do You Think You Are?, has regularly thrown up royal connections with modern celebrities. |
| |  | | Comedian Josh Widdecombe found out he was related to King Edward I on Who Do You Think You Are? Credit: Sarah Jeynes/BBC |
| But genealogists make the point that this isn’t a massive coincidence or even particularly unusual.
Once you go back many generations, over centuries, the numbers of ancestors will rapidly multiply, so that such links become more and more probable. The idea of a family tree soon becomes a dense forest of connections. |
| Professor Turi King, who has researched genetics and genealogy, has spoken of there being “literally millions” of people who are living descendants of Richard III.
So if you can trace back far enough, it could be you too. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment