British society magazine Tatler has given the Royalist an exclusive peek inside the pages of its Jubilee special issue, out next week. We particularly like the piece about the Queen’s best friends.
They include:
Sarah and William Stamps Farish. The Queen met the American Farishes in the mid-Eighties on the Kentucky racing circuit. Tatler says “Will Farish inherited a Texan oil fortune; Sarah is a DuPont heiress. Both are laidback about their friendship with the Queen, with whom they enjoy small (10-person) dinner parties when she goes to stay with them in Kentucky (although they’ve recently relocated to their Florida home and now spend most of their time there). Deeply Southern in their sensibilities, they uprooted to London for William’s spell as US ambassador.”
Terry Pendry, the Queen’s stud groom. “Terry and the Queen have something very passionate between them: horseflesh.”
The Earl of Airlie. The Lord Chamberlain and his wife “have the Queen’s ear to an almost unique degree – their most serious conversations take place on the grouse moor.”
Lady Pamela Hicks: The mother of India Hicks remembers writing a note when one of the Queen’s corgis died and receiving a six-page letter back. “A dog isn’t important, so she can express the really deep feelings she can’t get out otherwise,” says Lady Pamela.
Lady Micky Nevill: “The wife of the late Lord Rupert Nevill, Micky (born Lady Camilla Wallop)has been friends with the Queen since they were in a troop of Girl Guides, meeting in the grounds of Buckingham Palace to make campfires and practise bird calls,” says Tatler.
Angela Kelly: The Queen’s dresser “can be credited with computerising the Queen’s wardrobe and jewellery collection, Clueless-style, so that the Queen’s packing list comes down to spreadsheets. Angela and the Queen are incredibly close; some say she filled the void when the Queen lost her mother and sister in such quick succession.”
Margaret Rhodes: The second daughter of Lord Elphinstone, who was married to the Queen Mother’s sister, lives in the Garden House in Windsor Great Park. Tatler says: “Whenever the Queen is at Windsor on a Sunday, she drives her Jag ‘like a bat out of hell’ across the park for gin and Dubonnet and gossip with her cousin after church.”