Photo Credit — Ross B. Lewis / Wikimedia Commons — Quentin Crisp in New York City

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MY Queen Died in 1999

And I’m still in mourning

Remington Write
3 min readSep 17, 2022

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It’s very sad and all. And by that, I mean that no one can escape all the carrying on about some 96-year-old British lady up and dying so the whole damned country (world) is losing its collective marbles. Sorry for your loss, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family. Show some decency, however, and provide tea and blankets for those poor deluded sods waiting 30+ hours to file past Mum’s remains.

But the nice, respectful-seeming lady who was partial to hats that matched the ensemble with all those corgis underfoot was not my idea of a queen (sorry, not sorry).

Liz II was a pale simulacrum of Liz I. Now there was a Queen. That woman set the standard for what a Queen should be and do. Liz II was disadvantaged from the start by never having the chance to actually rule…not that I think she had it in her. She visited. She accepted gifts from little children in native dress and smiled for the ever-present cameras. She dutifully provided her nation with an heir and a spare (and then kept the heir waiting until his own hair was gray….go, Liz!).

But she was never a Queen like Liz I. Even in literature and films, Liz I outshines Liz II.

Take a look at this glorious clip from the immortal Sally Potter film, “Orlando” and tell me if this is not in fact the most regal, the most believable…

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