Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Steve Braunias: Secret Diary of The Queen

By Steve Braunias
Whanganui Chronicle·
23 Apr, 2016 01:01 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

MONDAY

One is 90 this week.

If I'm still going in another 10 years, I suppose I could send myself a congratulatory message.

"Dear Elizabeth. Well done. Regards, Elizabeth. PS Your son wants a word."

There he is now. I can see Charles from the window, moping about inside the greenhouse, muttering to himself.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Poor boy.

Philip was beastly to him as a child and I was usually away in some distant marine rock, such as New Zealand.

I'm reminded that a curious message arrived this morning from a New Zealander.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Hosking said his son had damaged the family car, and he was sending him out to work to pay the bill.

He wanted to know whether I needed anything "done around the house".

I like his attitude.

TUESDAY

A photographer arrives to take royal portraits.

"We want you surrounded by the people you love," says Ms Leibowitz.

I sit with Princess Charlotte on my lap and Prince George standing at her knee. We also arrange the other great-grandchildren Mia Tindall, and Savannah and Isla Phillips, with my two youngest grandchildren James, Viscount Severn, and his sister Lady Louise Windsor.

Lovely children!

Then I pose on a sofa in the White Drawing Room of Windsor Castle with Anne.

Dear Anne!

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Ms Leibowitz asks, "Anyone else?"

She photographs me walking in the private grounds of Windsor Castle with corgis Willow and Holly, and my dorgie cross-breeds Vulcan and Candy.

Wonderful beasts!

Ms Leibowitz asks, "Anyone else?"

"No," I tell her.

I can see Charles from the window, glaring up at me from inside the greenhouse. He is clenching his fists.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

WEDNESDAY

One is 90.

The phone never stops ringing. One of the callers is a Mr Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand.

"At the end of the day," he says, "I hope there's no hard feelings about wanting the flag changed. It wasn't my idea."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Well, anyway," I ask him, "do you know a Mr Hosking?"

"Yes, he works in my press office."

"Can you pass on a message to his son? We do need a few things 'done around the house', as it happens. Can he repair glass?"

THURSDAY

Mr Hosking entertains me all day with wonderful stories about how happy everybody is in New Zealand.

"Life," he tells me, "is perfect."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

His son does a good job at repairing the greenhouse and I pay him a pound. "That's double in your country," I point out.

Charles walks in unannounced.

We sit there in silence until he leaves.

Poor boy.

Mummy looked after him whenever I went away. She wrote me letters. I found one the other day, dated December 29, 1950: "He likes to sit on the bed playing with my little box of rather old lipsticks...He is a brave little boy, but I think he is sensitive."

"Children," I sigh.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Perhaps you should send him out to work," says Mr Hosking.

"It doesn't agree with him."

"Needs a good kick up the backside."

"Nothing seems to work," I tell him. "Let's change the subject. Have you come far?"

FRIDAY

Terrible news.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Prince is dead.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Survivor of triple-fatal crash on learning to walk with a prosthetic leg

21 Jun 10:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

One dead, six hurt in spate of overnight house fires

20 Jun 06:39 PM
Premium
Lifestyle

Gareth Carter: Plants to attract birds

20 Jun 05:00 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Survivor of triple-fatal crash on learning to walk with a prosthetic leg

Survivor of triple-fatal crash on learning to walk with a prosthetic leg

21 Jun 10:00 PM

He lost an arm and a leg in a crash that killed three friends.

One dead, six hurt in spate of overnight house fires

One dead, six hurt in spate of overnight house fires

20 Jun 06:39 PM
Premium
Gareth Carter: Plants to attract birds

Gareth Carter: Plants to attract birds

20 Jun 05:00 PM
'A team game': How Whanganui is preparing for another major flood

'A team game': How Whanganui is preparing for another major flood

20 Jun 05:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP