Defence Against the Dark Arts Part XVII: The Farjeons' Kings and Queens

When I was working on the article about the witty and amusing books of W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, their British history textbook parody 1066 and All That made me think of Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon's Kings and Queens, which was first published in 1932. 

The time has finally come to say a few words about this light and amusing little book.

Something about Kings and Queens
Kings and Queens is a children's classic that adults also enjoy reading. It consists of a collection of forty-one (originally thirty-eight) short poems about English and British monarchs. It is intended to be both educational and fun to read. 

The first poem is about William I, who became king in 1066.

The final poem in the early editions is about George V, who was on the throne when the book was first published. The 1953 edition, which was produced to mark the coronation year, also covers Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.

In between these monarchs, each member of each dynasty is honoured with a poem. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell also gets one, even though he was not an actual king!

Kings and Queens is available in several editions and has been illustrated by a variety of artists.

This is the first edition:

Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I is a good example of the poems in the Farjeons' book:

Hail, Queen Elizabeth! Here comes Queen Bess
In a very big ruff and a very wide dress;
Her hair it is red, and her eyes they are green,
And England has prospered since Bess became Queen.
…

She's vain as a peacock that opens its tail,
She's proud as an eagle that weathers the gale,
She's crafty and jealous, suspicious and mean,
But England is England now Bess is the Queen.

That sums her up quite well!

Princess Margaret’s death: was it a mercy killing?

Are there sinister elements in this case? Should we be suspicious of the official stories?

When Princess Margaret died in 2002, allegedly from a stroke, she had been off many people’s radar for a while. She was not greatly missed, and her death was eclipsed by the death of the Queen Mother a few weeks later. 

It was many years before the idea came into my mind that perhaps we were not told the full truth about her death. An article in the Daily Mail in 2016 about the release of art historian Sir Roy Strong’s diaries in which Princess Margaret was mentioned reminded me of these thoughts and inspired a short post for the old Conservative Conserpiracy forum.

Thinking once again about the tragic end to a life of hedonism reminded me of how the lives of Maria Callas and the Duchess of Windsor ended. In Princess Margaret’s case, so far as we know there was no sinister woman involved but she too ended up ill, alone and very unhappy. It seemed to me that there might have been some unseen influences at work in her life – and death.

Princess Margaret in 1949, decades before her decline:

Mayor and Llewelyn Davies connections: a tangled web

This article consists of material left over from my recent post about convenient deaths associated with the Austen, Mayor and Disraeli families. While doing the research for that post, I came across some information, leads and connections that I wanted to follow up. I decided to stick to the main subjects and leave the extra material and further research for another time.

Mary Sheepshanks and her connections

Flora M. Mayor was a lifelong friend of the social reformer Mary Sheepshanks. Mary Sheepshanks knew Flora’s fiancé Ernest Shepherd; Flora at one time believed that Ernest preferred Mary. Mary actually had feelings for someone else:

“In 1905 Mary Sheepshanks fell in love with Theodore Llewelyn Davies. However, he was in love with Meg Booth, the daughter of social investigator, Charles Booth. After she refused him, Davies committed suicide. “

Suicide is only suspected: he drowned while bathing alone in a pool in the River Lune. It is thought that he hit his head on a rock. He was 34 years old at the time.

Theodore Llewelyn Davies was uncle to the five Llewelyn Davies brothers, one of whom also drowned in a suspected suicide pact.