“She remembered every word”: Former ambassador recalls Queen Elizabeth II at book launch
This week saw the 100th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth II – and the launch of the Czech version of A Voyage Around the Queen, in which author Craig Brown looks at the late monarch from a multitude of perspectives. The book was translated by Michael Žantovský, a one-time Czech ambassador to London who spent time with the long-serving royal on several occasions. I spoke to him at the book’s launch at the British Embassy in Prague.
Craig Brown is known for uncovering unusual details about his subjects, or offering fresh perspectives on them. What did you learn about the Queen from the book?
“I learned so many things I didn’t know about her life. About many things, people and creatures around her.
“There’s a completely revealing chapter about corgis, the little, lovely dogs that turn out not to be as lovely as everybody would think.
“Also her love of horses, of the outdoors, and many other things.
“There are 110 or more chapters, and each one is a new perspective of the Queen, something that you wouldn’t remember, realise or come across otherwise.”
You were the Czech ambassador to the Court of St. James’s for six years and you also encountered the Queen with Vaclav Havel [for whom MŽ was spokesperson] in the early 1990s. What are your strongest memories of her?
“I of course will always remember the first meeting, and also the time when you present credentials to her, which is probably the longest time that an ambassador spends alone with the Queen. We had a lovely conversation on that occasion.
“Then there were other occasions: the garden parties and the autumn receptions that she holds for the ambassadors. She meets and greets every ambassador and exchanges a few sentences with them and their wives.
“The whole thing takes around two hours – standing. And then you realise the lady is almost 90 years old and you say, respect.”
Also you were saying earlier that you felt like she genuinely remembered you from your time with Havel?
“I didn’t say that [laughs]. I said she remembered every word from her meeting with Havel.
“And she remembered some other people in the delegation, including later our foreign minister, Alexandr Vondra.
“Of course she was too polite to say whether she remembered me or not.”
Many people, even those who weren’t royalists, seemed genuinely upset when she died. Why do you think she reached so many people in that way?
“I think one word sums it up and it’s service. She devoted her life to the job and served for 70 years, until the very day before she died, when she met the new prime minister, Liz Truss.
“And she did it with dignity and grace and without any scandals that usually become associated with royal families or their lives.
“She was an exemplary queen. It sounds absurd to say about a queen that she was exemplary, but I’ve met a few more royals and among them she was the model.”
My next question is getting into the realms of speculation, but people said that the former Prince Andrew was her favourite. Would she have treated him as Prince Charles has done in cutting him off over all the Epstein stuff?
“I’d find it difficult to venture a guess on this.
“But there are several moments in the book when one or another of her children must have been a source of disappointment or sadness for her.
“And it’s fascinating to read about how she rose above the occasion in most circumstances – but must have been hurting inside.”