The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Friday 24 September 2004

Royalty Between the Covers

Oh, I know what you’re thinking about this title, but I leave that type of journalism to the tabloid press. This is a tasteful column, remember. 

No, what brought this on is the busy start the Jester had to the beginning of this month. The painters, who had promised me two days notice to remove everything from walls, shelves and large pieces of furniture, instead gave me a few hours. Fortunately they were quickly done and I was left to put it all back. It was while restocking the shelves with my innumerable book collections that I realized just how many royalty-based books I have accumulated over the years.  

My collection includes a London Illustrated News edition covering the Coronation of George VI. I have coffee-table picture books chronicling the Silver and Golden Jubilees of our present Queen. I have books on the lives of Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Philip, the Queen Mother’s life and death and The Duke of Windsor. Of course, being of sound Celtic stock, on my mother’s side anyway, I am not the first in the family to be a supporter of the royalty publishing industry. Nor the only, because the sheer numbers of books, magazines and collectibles based on the British Royal Family alone have grown phenomenally over the years.  

From Elizabeth I, her heirs and successors to Elizabeth II and hers there’s something for everyone. Just from a cursory check of my local bookstore and in the backs of royalty magazines there are editions on Royal: Engagements, Brides, Weddings, Jewelry, Relatives, Mistresses, Coronations, Visits, Gardens, Gardeners, Entertaining, Visits, Pets, Portraits, Photographs, Lithographs, Treasures, Jubilees, Pageantry, Heraldry, Castles, Homes, Palaces, Toys, Funerals, Potions, Fashions and Years. 

There are the authorized biographies and unauthorized ones penned by former employees (but only from the Queen’s generation forward because prior to that it was considered unthinkable). 

A collectors’ heaven it is too from replicas of the Crown Jewels and Faberge eggs to commemorative china plates, tea sets, calendars, prints, postcards, mini crystal carriages, towels, pins, pens, stamps, videos, figurines, autographs and mugs. 

And it’s not just the House of Windsor that interests people. Take this website for instance. The recent updates include royal families from Bahrain to Japan to Spain. No matter where in the world their subjects may wander each King, Emperor and Sultan remains an important part of their lives.  

Even republics like the US and States like Russia welcome visiting Royalty with open arms. Why? The Jester would really like to hear from you readers detailing why the British Royal Family, or any monarchy you prefer, has become a source of fascination or curiosity to you? Please write and tell me. I think your comments would make for an enlightening future column or two. 

For the Jester it is admiration for our Queen. Throughout her 52 years on the throne she has never willingly failed to keep the promises she made to her people on her Coronation Day. Her personal ethics of dedication, honesty, hard work and a strong belief in her God are today given short shrift by some. Duty and service are undervalued. In private she is funny, talented, intelligent, and keeps her opinions to herself. Still she continues to be consulted and admired by other Heads of State. She is asked to mediate issues and claims unresolved from colonial times. She keeps a fractious Commonwealth together sometimes through pure determined statecraft. She loves her children and grandchildren. She is often criticized for not caring enough, or showing that she does enough. Why should she have to? It is clear that she must or she would not have put so much of herself into her reign. And she continues to work as hard as ever, long past the usual age when her subjects have already retired. She is a very human lady, with no comparable peers, who made an extraordinary vow to serve her people all her life, and she’ll keep it. She may not have been born to the job but thankfully she was born for it.  

The Jester also believes that despite the mistakes and poor choices in his private life, Prince Charles will be a good professional king. There are some that say he is a spoiled, elitist snob. But this doesn’t fit in with the fact that for over 20 years he has been working quietly to improve the prospects for youth. He began championing causes years ago that today are major public concerns (the environment and the future of sustainable food supplies to name but two). At the time the ‘experts’ ridiculed and vilified him for it. He is an artist, an athlete, an author, an animal-lover, a visionary agrarian and an active, loving parent. Plus he has two handsome heirs with great potential, who if allowed to grow into their own in their own time, are both guaranteed to keep the book publishers in the black and the collectors in paradise for decades to come. 

So, what’s on your bookshelves?

Anon til we meet again!

- The Court Jester