Mum's the word

When British author William Shawcross climbed the 90 stone stairs leading to the Royal Archives in Windsor Castle in 2003, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"At the top floor of an ancient tower, there are all these rooms, filled with hundreds of boxes crammed with letters and papers. I thought, 'My goodness, will I ever get through these?'" It took him six years to sift through 300 years of Royal Family correspondence and to dig out material for his new, 1,100-page book, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, the Official Biography.

Royal biographer William Shawcross says that he was surprised by "the fluency and thoughtfulness" of the Queen Mum's letters and by "the great wit, jubilation and joy" they contained.

Having already produced two BBC television series on the monarchy, Shawcross was chosen by the Royal Family to write the official biography of the Queen Mother after her death in March 2002. He is the first to admit that "if you're looking for scandal, it ain't here." He quotes from a letter Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, then the Duchess of York, wrote to her mother-in law on Oct. 11, 1936, shortly before King Edward VIII abdicated: "Ever since I married, I have made a strict rule never to discuss anything of Family matters." That strict rule continued throughout the Queen Mother's life, so there are few references in her letters to her daughter Margaret's unhappy love affairs and divorce, for example, or to the troubled marriages of her grandchildren.

What Shawcross's book does provide is a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of the 20th century's most endearing women — and of her love for Canada, a country she visited 15 times. An entire chapter is devoted to a trip Queen Elizabeth and her husband, King George VI, took to Canada and the U.S. in 1939. In letters to her daughter, Elizabeth II, the Queen described Ontario and Quebec as "rather like Scotland on a large scale." On May 23, 1939, she wrote, "Papa & I have had a wonderful welcome everywhere we have been. The French people in Quebec and Ottawa were wonderfully loyal: & in Montreal, there must have been 2,000,000 people, all very enthusiastic. ... Yesterday, in Toronto it was the same, and we feel so glad that we were able to come here."

On May 27, 1939, from the royal train in Calgary, she wrote, "We saw a lot of Indians and quite a lot of cowboys on 'bucking broncos' who came dashing along with us." On June 1 of that year, she wrote to Queen Mary, "All Canada is very pleased at the way the French Canadians [received] us, and [they] are hopeful that the visit will bring lasting results in uniting the country. They are terribly divided in many ways — and the provincial Gov:ments [sic] especially are jealous and suspicious of the Federal Government. But they are so young that I expect they will achieve unity in the end."

A year later, in the midst of the Second World War, the Queen was writing to her mother-in-law from London about a close escape from a German bomber. On Sept. 13, 1940, she wrote, "there was the noise of an aircraft diving at great speed and then the scream of a bomb. The scream hurtled past us and exploded with a tremendous bang in the quadrangle." After the encounter, the Queen and King had lunch in Buckingham Palace's bomb shelter and then drove to the devastated east end of London. After one such visit, on Oct. 25, 1940, the Queen wrote to her sister May Elphinstone, "It makes one furious seeing the wanton destruction of so much. Sometimes, it really makes me feel almost ill. I can't tell you how I loathe going round these bombed places. I am a beastly coward & it breaks one's heart to see so much misery & sadness."

The book chronicles the premature death of King George VI, who died in his sleep on Feb. 5, 1952. "It is impossible for me to grasp what has happened, last night he was in wonderful form and looking so well," Queen Elizabeth wrote to her mother-in-law the next day. A few days later, she announced that in the future, she wished to be known as "Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother." She seemed to have a change of heart mere months after. On June 28, 1952, in a letter to her daughter, the new Queen Elizabeth, she confided that she disliked the title, saying it was a "horrible name."

Of particular curiousity to Royal watchers are the Queen Mum's feelings about the late Princess Diana. In a letter to the Queen Mum after she married Charles in 1981, Diana wrote, "I will try my hardest to make your grandson happy & give him all the love and support he needs & deserves. I still can't get over how lucky I am &  it will take me the rest of my life to recover." According to the book, the Queen Mum was sympathetic to Diana with regard to the growing media scrutiny around her, but she felt that the airing of dirty linen in public — as in Andrew Morton's 1992 biography Diana: Her True Story — was abhorrent. Diana's public rejection of Charles and his life in later years went against everything the Queen Mum believed in.

Shawcross says that he was surprised by "the fluency and thoughtfulness" of the letters and by "the great wit, jubilation and joy" they contained. "She was always a great optimist, and I think that's probably why she lived so long," Shawcross says.

Even at the end of her life, the Queen Mother showed an endearing humility. On Aug. 6, 2001, after celebrations for her 100th birthday, her grandson Prince Charles wrote, "I will never forget the magical atmosphere that surrounded you with love, devotion and gratitude for all that you mean to people."

The Queen Mother reportedly told a friend that she couldn't understand what all the fuss was about: "I was just doing my job," she said.

Ann MacMillan is the managing editor of the CBC London Bureau.