Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

"The children wont go without me. I wont leave the King. And the King will never leave."

"Queen Elizabeth: I thought the girls . . . you see, they were marooned in Windsor Castle for most of the war, and I was not sure that they were having a very good education and kind Sachie and Osbert [Sitwell] said they would arrange a poetry evening for us. Such an embarrassment. Osbert was wonderful, as you would expect, and Edith, of course, but then we had this rather lugubrious man in a suit, and he read a poem . . . I think it was called "The Desert". And first the girls got the giggles, and then I did and then even the King. Self: "The Desert", maam? Are you sure it wasnt called "The Waste Land? Queen Elizabeth: Thats it. Im afraid we all giggled. Such a gloomy man, looked as though he worked in a bank, and we didnt understand a word. Self: I believe he did once work in a bank."

"At the dinner table, the talk turned to politics. It was in the days before the Gang of Four had allied themselves to the Liberal Party [early 1981]. Queen Elizabeth [The Queen Mother]: I dislike this new socialist party of Woys [sic]. Host: Theyre called the Social Democrats, maam. Queen Elizabeth: Yes. Well, you dont change socialist just by leaving ist off the end. I say, its a cheat to start something called the Social Party. I liked the old Labour Party. The best thing is a good old Tory government with a strong Labour opposition."

"Was this yours? Oh, could you take it?"

"Never trust them, never trust them. They cant be trusted."

"He is the only man, since my dear husband died, to have had the effrontery to kiss me on the lips.”"

"Dear Edwina, she always liked to make a splash."

"That is the most dangerous woman in Europe."

"Wouldnt it be terrible if youd spent all your life doing everything you were supposed to do, didnt drink, didnt smoke, didnt eat things, took lots of exercise, all the things you didnt want to do, and suddenly one day you were run over by a big red bus, and as the wheels were crunching into you youd say Oh my god, I could have got so drunk last night! Thats the way you should live your life, as if tomorrow youll be run over by a big red bus."

"I wouldnt if I were you, Noël; they count them before they put them out."