In my now 54 years there are two women I remember always being around: Shirley Bassey, and the Queen. Now a youthful 73, the Diva lives in semi-retirement in Monaco, but the Queen is now 84 years young and still going strong. Her mother, the Queen Mother, lived to 101, and but for the death of her other daughter, the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, I feel certain she would have lived another ten years. I have no doubt the Queen will outlive her mother – and probably me.
The idea of writing to Buckingham Palace came to me as I was watching the programme alluded to in the letter. I know the Queen has a sense of humour, hence the slightly flippant tone. I am not of course the first person to write to the Palace on this question, and although the reply has the appearance of a form letter, it is entirely different in tone from the reply received by a fellow traveller who wrote to Her Majesty independently sometime before I did.
As I said, I know the Queen has a sense of humour, and I can just about imagine her reading this over breakfast and dictating her reply.
The letter itself is fairly straightforward and is reproduced here in Portable Document Format complete with errors. The Big Questions should read The Big Questions, and Maastricht should have been spelt thus. The response, also in Public Document Format, includes a scan of the envelope.
August 4, 2010
Letter To The Queen
Response From Buckingham Palace
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