WILD RUMOURS ROYALS ADORED

THE Royal Archives at Windsor are vast, partly because they are fed by the Government machine. Diplomats all around the world are encouraged to report to the royals about royals. Warwick Morris, a lowly third secretary in Paris in the early 1970s, recalls that there was much to tell. Many French people were fascinated by the British Royal Family, having done away with their own in the French Revolution. Certain French newspapers and magazines such as France Dimanche and Paris Match, as well as the more sensational ones, featured articles every week about the royals. ‘These included outrageous and fictitious ones, like the whole Everton football team having been in Princess Anne’s bedroom at Buckingham Palace, or the Queen Mother being dead and having a living double,’ recalls Morris. The British Embassy used to send a selection of ‘these scurrilous stories’ to Buckingham Palace from time to time. Never having got any reaction, they eventually wrote proposing to stop. Suddenly a reply came: ‘No, please don’t. The Family derives huge entertainment and amusement from what you send. Keep them coming!’