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The Queen of Tonga
This unseasonable spell of snowy weather has somehow dredged up a memory from my distant childhood.
Queen Salote of Tonga was paying a State Visit to UK and being accorded all the honours. She was absolutely enormous, probably around 20 stone, and delightfully happy and jovial. The Brits took to her straightaway and the Daily Express published the following which has stuck (irritatingly) in my mind ever since:
"Linger longer, Queen of Tonga, linger longer wiv'us,
While our dreadful English winter gives us all the shiva's!"
There was then later a ceremonial pageant involving open coaches and horses and the rest (which I still think we do rather well here). It's reputed that Noel Coward - the playwright of high intelligence and acerbic wit - was watching the carriages going past with a group of his friends. Next to Salote in her carriage, totally dwarfed by her, was a weedy little diplomat in a morning suit and a top hat. "Who is that?" said someone in the group. "Oh that" said Noel Coward "is her lunch!"
I have to confess that I absolutely love it ... And how stimulating it would have been to be a member of his circle.
Tony.
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