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I suppose I was being a little harsh. I certainly still admire FDR's war leadership while I am aware of the fact that he did some pretty dodgy things when he interned thousands of American Japanese. Many people in those days held absolutely deplorable views on race, women, what have you. And...

Can anyone tell me anything about the ring George VI has on his right pinky finger in this photo? It looks to be some sort of signet ring, but whether it's a royal ring or just a non-ceremonial thing, I don't know.

Sounds like she was being deliberately rude and disrespectful. And mimicking someone when they're in earshot -- unless she made a mistake, that's very provocative. Sounds like she liked to stir the pot. I assume the Queen Mother had one of those RP accents that Americans adore making a mockery...

I read something somewhere about a book by the same title being released at the same time as the film. Sounds interesting. [Edited to add]: There's some info here.

This book looks interesting: Letters from a Prince: Edward, Prince of Wales, to Mrs. Freda Dudley Ward. Anyone read it? This was the source of the quote where Edward compared indigenous Australians to monkeys. If I ever had a high opinion of him, nothing remained after I read that.

The Queen Mother’s letters revealed Lovely article about the letters Shawcross uncovered when he wrote the QM's biography. Since she only gave two newspaper interviews (I think the last was a disastrous one right before her marriage) her letters were an invaluable resource.

Oh dear, this is a bit TL;DR. Sorry! I think the Queen Mother was naturally more "warm" in public than Wallis. I don't think that either that or the fact that she had no kids means she wasn't a kind person, though. She didn't do much in terms of the war effort but there were plenty who did just...

True. It was the custom for people of that class to be less direct in the raising of their children. Winston Churchill kept a picture of his nanny, a Mrs. Everest, by his bed until the day he died. Nonetheless I think it's important to make a disctinction between the norm and what even back then...

George VI was called Bertie among family and friends. George V was George. :whistling: And I have to agree, it's certainly a way to break the ice -- whether or not people are laughing or bristling with indignation.

Thanks, Warren! No worries. He famously said "I was afraid of my father, my father was afraid of his mother, and I'm going to make damn sure my children are afraid of me!" He certainly made sure of that. I don't get it either. Way to screw up your kids, dude! I think it was way beyond the usual...

I assumed that his returning would have risked some sort of constitutional crisis, or at least undermined the monarchy. Then again, he kept a low profile politically after the abdication, so maybe it was just the fact that he was persona non grata with his brother and the Queen Elizabeth the...

I think Prince George's bisexuality is fairly well established, as is his drug habit. I'm not saying he was unsuitable as a king, but since Edward had just abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson it sounds like a completely oddball choice. Besides, as Zonk said, skipping the Duke of York in the line...

That's quite naive on his part. I think exile was the only way the RF could deal with him. Anything high-profile that he did in England would have threatened the stability of the monarchy. It wasn't like they could let him go around opening schools or what have you. I wonder how instrumental...

I found a great article the other day that's probably already been mentioned here, although I couldn't find it using the search function. How The Queen Mother Touched Our Lives: 100 Things You Never Knew Some of my favourites: I think I've heard that "Going to bed with the king" anecdote...

I think he's always been like that, though. It's easy to blame some of his comments on old age but I think he's always been quite outspoken, and he's never given a fig for what anyone but the Queen cared about, as said upthread. He made the "bloody amoeba" comment and the "British women can't...

The man seems in danger of saying something inappropriate whenever he opens his mouth. IMO it's a filtering issue: it's not that bad to find cause to complain about a sensitive smoke alarm, but bringing it up at this event... didn't he think before he said it? Or he may just care less about...

All news media is biased -- just some more so than others. The BBC is technically politically independent. That doesn't mean they haven't been biased, but IMHO they're consistently higher quality than a lot of the dreck out there.

This particular gaffe may have been mentioned up-thread: when Prince Phillip met a woman who was trying to publicise the dangers of not having a functioning smoke alarm (two of her children died in a fire) he said "My smoke alarm is a damn nuisance. Every time I run my bath, the steam sets it...

A better version of a portrait from 1943, by Yousuf Karsh. Karsh was a wonderful photographer and he produced some truly iconic portraits. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3159/2984908595_2a0af497f4_z.jpg?zz=1 .

George V made a statement to the effect of "I hope nothing gets between Bertie and Lillibet [the Queen] and the throne." The article sounds a bit fantastic to me. I'm sure all sorts of crazy schemes were considered momentarily but it was most logical for the second son to take the throne. Also...

The Queen with her parents in 1929. .

By the way, that's referred to as an "intrusive r". It's still present to a certain extent in the Boston accent, ie "Take a barth". Australians do it as well. But in the UK it's an RP thing. When I listened to Edward VIII's abdication speech I noticed that his Rs were a little W-like, if that...

What annoys me about sources like that are the weasel words. Stop obfuscating and let me make up my own mind! Similarly, I wouldn't go so far as to call George VI a saint. He was just a quiet guy who stepped up and did his duty. It's admirable that he didn't crack under the strain and...

I like to think of it this way: how much controversy would there be if someone ran for office in America married to (or courting) a twice-divorced woman who was as outspoken and visible as Wallis Simpson? Maybe it would be less so in the UK, but it would still arouse comment. On one hand the...

I agree, but I also think that it's impossible for an author to be completely unbiased. When a book is level-headed and well-researched, that's okay. But what's I can't stand is when an author makes an ad hominem attack against a historical figure who can't fight back -- being "bitchy" is how I...