One was clearly most amused.
Her Majesty saw the funny side yesterday as she presented a poetry award – which has an image of a naked woman on the back.
The monarch shared a laugh with John Agard, winner of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, as she presented him with the honour at Buckingham Palace.
One was clearly most amused.
Her Majesty saw the funny side yesterday as she presented a poetry award – which has an image of a naked woman on the back.
The monarch shared a laugh with John Agard, winner of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, as she presented him with the honour at Buckingham Palace.
One side of the medal bears the crowned effigy of the Queen. The idea of the other side, designed by late French illustrator Edmund Dulac, is, according to the official explanation, ‘Truth emerging from her well and holding in her right hand the divine flame of inspiration – Beauty is truth and Truth Beauty’.
Both the Queen and Guyanese-born Mr Agard, 63, who writes for adults and children, looked tickled.
The prize was instituted in 1933 by King George V with the recipient chosen by a committee chaired by the Poet Laureate. Previous winners include John Betjeman, Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes.
If laughter really is the best medicine, yesterday’s moment of mirth was aptly timed for the Queen, who has been suffering from a debilitating bout of gastroenteritis.
Last night it emerged the 86-year-old monarch has been forced to cancel the rest of her public engagements this week.
Buckingham Palace said she was still not well enough to conduct two high profile visits – a joint appearance with her son, Prince Andrew, today at London’s Tech City; and a service at the Guards Chapel on Thursday, which is just yards from Buckingham Palace.
It means she has had to cancel all but one of her engagements over a two week period due to ill health – the first time for many decades that anyone can remember her doing so.
Aides insisted, however, that her health should not give cause for alarm and stressed that she was continuing with what they described as the ‘rhythm’ of palace business each day.
It is understood that she conducted around five audiences with ambassadors and the like in private yesterday and will hold a meeting of her privy councillors as well as her weekly consultation with the Prime Minister.
A spokesman for the Queen said she ‘hoped’ to resume with her normal official programme of engagements next week.
One senior royal source said: ‘The Queen is very much shaking off the end of it [her illness]. She just wants to be fully recovered before she resumes a full programme of events. She is doing official work but just in a reduced capacity until she is fully fit.’
From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2292427/Laid-bare-merry-monarch-Queen-gets-giggles-hands-poetry-medal-John-Agard.html
