A new book about the Queen reveals the late monarch’s amusing attempt to shed light on a threat to her life

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

Written by author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, the riveting new book provides charming insight into the Queen’s remarkable sense of humour.

Mr Brandreth, a former Tory MP and trusted confidant of the senior Royals, reveals how throughout her reign the monarch has taken the opportunity to be in the firing line in her stride.

She even managed to shed light on an assassination attempt at Christmas last year when a masked intruder wielding a crossbow approached a police officer in the grounds of Windsor Castle and announced he was come to “kill the queen”.

The teenager suspected of scaling Windsor Castle armed with a crossbow in an attempt to ‘assassinate the Queen in revenge for the massacre at Amritsar in 1919’

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

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

Mr Brandreth, who holds a unique position as a friend and biographer to the Royal Family, tells a number of stories that highlight the sadly deceased sovereign’s wit and love of jokes. He tells how it was his “ironic, dry and humorous way of seeing things” that particularly struck him.

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

“She could really sing ‘When I’m cleaning winders’ and the other songs George Formby used to sing on his banjolele when she was growing up in the war – and in Formby’s authentic Lancashire accent too.” (She was the Duke of Lancaster, after all.)’

This follows revelations from the Mail yesterday on Sunday about the Queen’s remarkable way of welcoming Meghan into the Royal Family – despite her concerns that Prince Harry was ‘perhaps a bit too much in love’ with his new partner.

In today’s insightful excerpt, Mr. Brandreth reveals:

• The Queen’s ‘accurate impressions’, including an ‘alarmingly accurate’ vocal recreation of the Concorde coming in to land above Windsor Castle.
• After the 1973 wedding of horse-loving Princess Anne to Mark Phillips, a key member of Britain’s three-day team, the Queen said: ‘I shouldn’t wonder if their children are on all fours’
• How she joked with an American couple who didn’t recognize her while strolling near Balmoral, telling 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 useless now’ at a gathering of foreign heads of government in 1992.
• How the Queen found it amusing when in 2018 Donald Trump preceded her on her visit to Windsor and inspected the honor guard. And that night, when she saw herself on TV, “dancing behind him,” she burst out laughing.
• How he (Mr Brandreth) once made her laugh by telling her a story she claimed she had never heard before – that Princess Margaret’s son David Linley’s first word was ‘luster’.
• The Duke of Edinburgh has told how his wife is ‘completely normal’ despite being an object of adulation for over 70 years. “It didn’t affect her at all,” he told Mr Brandreth. “She never thought for a moment that the applause was for her personally.” It’s for the position she holds – it’s for the role she fills, it’s because she’s queen. That’s all. She knows it. Her head wasn’t turned by being queen – not at all. She is completely normal.

Heightened security at Windsor Castle after crossbow-wielding intruder entered park on Christmas Day

Mr Brandreth’s book tells the story of Elizabeth’s life and reign from a unique perspective, having been one of the few authors to have met and spoken to her, keeping records meticulous – and often hilarious – 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, launching a poetry podcast with the Queen Consort earlier this year. He also knows the new king and Camilla well.

In the Sunday clip, Mr Brandreth told how the Queen was ‘devoted’ to her grandson Harry and thought he was ‘great fun’ and loved Meghan and did ‘everything to make her feel welcome “.

He revealed the Queen had also told Meghan she could continue her career, saying: ‘You can continue to be an actress if you want – it’s your job, after all’, but she was ‘delighted’ when Meghan said she would quit acting to devote herself. in royal service.

The Queen loved Doria, Meghan’s mother, and regretted that the Markle family had been ‘fractured’. He also said that while other members of the Royal Family found the Sussexes’ decision to name their daughter Lilibet – the Queen’s childhood nickname – “baffling” and “rather presumptuous”, the Queen pointed out that it was “very pretty and seems fair”. .

Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait is published by Michael Joseph on December 8.