New book on the Queen reveals late monarch’s amusing attempt to make light of a threat on her life

The Queen’s optimistic – and hilarious – response to a threat to her life is revealed today in a riveting biography of the late monarch.

The fascinating new book, written by author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, provides a charming insight into the Queen’s remarkable sense of humour.

Mr Brandreth, a former Conservative MP and trusted confidant of the senior Royals, reveals how the monarch used the opportunity to get into the firing line during her reign.

She even managed to make light of an attempt on her life last Christmas when a masked intruder wielding a crossbow approached a police officer in the grounds of Windsor Castle and announced he had come “to kill the Queen.”

Mr Brandreth relates how when the Queen was told of the incident she said to one of her team members: ‘Yes, that would have put a damper on Christmas, wouldn’t it?’

The funny anecdote is one of many heartwarming stories in the book, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, which is being serialized. The Mail+ and the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.

Mr Brandreth, who holds a unique position as a friend and biographer of the royal family, tells a number of stories that highlight the humor of the sadly deceased sovereign and his love of a joke. He says that it was mainly her ‘wry, dry, humorous way of looking’ that struck him.

“The fun of spending time with the Queen was both discovering how much fun she was and discovering unexpected things about her,” he wrote.

‘She could really sing ‘When I’m cleaning winders’ and the other songs George Formby sang on his banjolele growing up during the war – and with Formby’s authentic Lancashire accent too. (She was the Duke of Lancaster, after all.)’

It follows revelations in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday about the remarkable way the Queen welcomed Meghan into the royal family – despite her concerns that Prince Harry was “perhaps a little overly in love” with his new partner.

In today’s illuminating extract, Mr. Brandreth reveals:

• The Queen’s ‘spot-on impressions’, including an ‘alarmingly accurate’ vocal reproduction of the Concorde coming in to land over Windsor Castle.
• Following the 1973 wedding of the horse-loving Princess Anne to Mark Phillips, a key member of Britain’s three-day events team, the Queen remarked: ‘I shouldn’t be wondering if their children are four-legged’
• How she joked with an American couple who didn’t recognize her on a walk near Balmoral and told them she “lived in London” but had a “holiday home on the other side of the hills.”
• The Queen teased her former Prime Minister Edward Heath by telling him, “You are now expendable” at a meeting of foreign heads of government in 1992.
• How amused the Queen was when Donald Trump walked ahead of her in 2018 when he visited Windsor and inspected the guard of honour. And that night, when she saw herself “bobbing after him” on television, she laughed out loud.
• How he (Mr Brandreth) once made her laugh by telling her a story she claimed she’d never heard – that Princess Margaret’s son David Linley’s first word was ‘chandelier’.
• The Duke of Edinburgh spoke of how his wife was “quite normal” despite being an object of adoration for over 70 years. “It didn’t bother her at all,” he told Mr. Brandreth. “She never thought for a moment that the cheering was personal to her. It’s for the position she’s in – it’s for the role she’s in, it’s because she’s queen. That’s all. She knows that. Her head hasn’t changed from being queen – not at all. She’s very normal.’

Mr Brandreth’s book tells the story of Elizabeth’s life and reign from a unique perspective, as she was one of the few authors to have met and spoken to her, keeping meticulous – and often hilarious – records of their conversations .

He had been close to Prince Philip since the 1970s, after meeting at a charity event where they hit it off.

Mr Brandreth has continued to work with the Royals and launched a poetry podcast with the Queen Consort earlier this year. He also knows the new king and Camilla well.

In Sunday’s excerpt, Mr Brandreth spoke of how the Queen was “devoted” to her grandson Harry and thought he was “huge fun” and liked Meghan and “did everything to make her feel welcome”.

He revealed that the Queen had also told Meghan she could continue her career, saying “You can continue to be an actress if you want – that’s your profession after all,” but was “delighted” when Meghan said she would retire from acting to focus to dedicate. to royal service.

The Queen loved Meghan’s mother Doria and was sad that the Markle family was ‘broken’. He also said that while other members of the royal family called the Sussexes’ decision to call their daughter Lilibet – the Queen’s childhood nickname – “baffling” and “rather presumptuous”, the Queen commented that it was “very beautiful and seemed just right’. .

Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait will be published December 8 by Michael Joseph.

Click here to read the excerpt of Gyles Brandreth’s intimate portrait of the Queen on The Mail+