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At Home With the Queen by Brian Hoey: book review





At Home With the Queen: Life Through the Keyhole of the Royal Household (2003, revised version 2013) is about the royal household of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. It is a comprehensive and extremely (excessively) detailed account of absolutely everything concerned with the operations and management of Britain’s royalty – from the Queen to all who serve her and her family.

Although there is some repetition, this is a dense and compact book of the interesting and the minutiae. It includes the people – nannies, nursemaids, dressers, the Master of the Household, the valets, the finance staff, the ladies-in-waiting, the police and bodyguards, the press secretaries, and all else.

It includes invitations to the Palace, the pomp and circumstance, and royal travel. It also mentions, of course, the royal horses and royal dogs. No question is left unanswered, no fact left unturned.

I’m reading the book at the time of the announcement of the renovations to Buckingham Palace, which will commence in April 2017 and cost an estimated $457 million. Officials described the renovations to Queen Elizabeth II’s home as ‘essential’ because some of the electrical wiring is 60 years old, and 5,000 light fittings and 2,500 radiators/heaters will need to be replaced.

The cost of the renovations will come from the soverign grant, which is an allowance provided by the British government from profits on the Crown Estate (a collection of land and properties in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch). In 2015 the 15% profits that the Queen received from the Crown Estate was $49.7 million, but in order to fund the renovations this will be increased to 25% of the profits for the next 10 years. In 2027 it will revert to 15%. In other words, the profits of the monarch’s entire estate goes to the government, who then give back to the Queen 15% of the profits to live on. This is also mentioned in the book in great detail.

Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms with 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, and 78 bathrooms. The last time it was redecorated was in 1952. The Queen will continue to live in Buckingham Palace while the renovations take place.





MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


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