Behind Palace Doors Paperback – 4 May 2017 by Colin Burgess (John Blake Publishing Ltd)

 

I met the Queen Mother at a reception in 1973, and, yes, she was and obviously remained very accomplished and polished. This comes through in the book.

But hugely expensive. I gather that on her death well over a hundred staff had to be redeployed or paid or pensioned off. Add to this maintenance, catering and travel costs and (for a picnic near Edinburgh, for example) "a whole protection unit......with police cars, Land Rovers, the lot", and a feeling of remarkably expensive luxury comes through. And a lot of elderly, upper class hangers on, gathered round an even more elderly Queen. And everyone so obsessed with form, etiquette and protocol, reminiscent of Anglo-Catholic ritual: style over substance.

All this takes place in what the author calls "a fairly sedate place, quite straightforward and quiet". He is modest enough to admit that his job was "not an adrenalin rush by any stretch of the imagination", though it got him a gong (MVO) and promotion to the rank of major at the age of 26. But in fairness although he describes the job as "a comfortable one, quite easy", it obviously demanded a high degree of tact, diplomacy and flexibility and not many people could have done it as well as he did.

I had always though that people who had worked for the Royal Family signed secrecy documents, and that a book like this was scrutinised before publication. The author seems reasonably discreet, but I was surprised how forthright he was about Prince Andrew. Also, as a (retired) HR Manager, it rang a bell when I read that Prince Charles's personnel officer had to pick up the pieces after HRH dismissed staff on the spot.

Unfortunately towards the end of the book becomes a bit repetitive and platitudinous. We learn, for example, surprise, surprise, that the Queen Mother was not particularly politically correct (yawn). We also get rather a blurred picture of the QM: "you couldn't get more formal", but a few lines later we're told that "she wasn't as formal as the people working below her". And "there was no stuffiness about her". Yet she wouldn't talk racing with a mere secretary, and comes across as steeped in etiquette and protocol.

To use the review criteria, this book is "okay". A reasonable bargain for a daily deal.