38656356325923

outside the Palace the newspapers are ever present, ever hungry for news and ready to
pay for it.
Elizabeth and Philip are totally discreet. They never discuss family matters in front of
the staff, nor does Elizabeth ever leave anything that should be private lying around
where it might provide a temptation. In fact their own staff have been notably loyal –
leaks in recent years have come primarily from officials. The younger royals have been
less careful. The Princess of Wales had to be told off in her early days for going into the
royal kitchens and chatting to the staff, and she shocked courtiers with the frankness
with which she spoke and behaved in front of the servants. One of the worst offenders,
as far as leaks go, in recent years was Charles’s valet, Stephen Barry. Charles gave
Barry far too much leeway and it went to his head. He would invite his gay friends into
the palaces and show them round – even the Queen Mother’s home, Clarence House –
while at Buckingham Palace he would give parties in his rooms with footmen serving
drinks and canapés. He was to provide much of the material for recent royal books –
apart from writing his own after he was sacked by the Princess of Wales.
It is unimaginable that anyone close to Elizabeth or Philip would behave in this way.
They have earned the loyalty of their staff. Even Philip with his explosive temper is
liked by those who work for him. Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting and friends are less
enamoured of him, regarding him as difficult and a bully. Like many men, while he can
be warm and charming to a pretty woman even when he knows her to be a tabloid
journalist (a breed which tops his hate list), he can be noticeably ungracious to middleaged
women or those he does not find attractive. Both he and Elizabeth are good judges
of people who work for them; Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting are, almost without
exception, particularly charming, quick-witted and kind. They are unsnobbish, unpompous
and – some of them – independent-minded and often subversively amused by the
stuffier attitudes of Elizabeth’s male officers of the household.
The top men at Elizabeth’s court – the Lord Chamberlain, the Private Secretary, the
Keeper of the Privy Purse and the Master of the Household – are still in the traditional
mould: public school, with a background in the Army, the Navy, the Foreign Office or
the City. Their suits are as immaculate as their manners, their hobbies traditional –
shooting and watching cricket; they are members of exclusive London clubs. Somewhat
surprisingly, since Philip is usually not so conventional in his choice, his chief aide, Sir
Brian McGrath, is also Eton, Irish Guards and a member of White’s Club, with shooting
among his hobbies.
The Queen’s Principal Private Secretary is the most important figure in the Palace
hierarchy despite his lowly sounding title. He is her channel of communication with the
outside world, her eyes and ears in Downing Street and Whitehall. Everything important
which reaches Elizabeth goes through him; he is the filter sifting the relevant from the
irrelevant. His is the face which important visitors see when they go to the Palace
although the vast majority of Elizabeth’s subjects don’t know his name and wouldn’t
recognize him if shown his photograph. The calibre of the Queen’s Private Secretary is of
immense importance in the relations of the Palace with the outside world, both in the