The Queen: History in an Hour

Displaying a keen survival instinct, which would continue to be a defining characteristic of the British monarchy to this day, George set about ‘Anglicizing’ his family. The only way to disassociate himself from his German ancestry, he decided, was to shed the family surname of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in favour of one which would be more pleasing to the British ear.

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

But, if there is anything at all to be learned from history, it is that things rarely go according to plan.

She] is quite a character. She had an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant.’

The Prince of Wales has often been an outspoken critic of modernist architecture. In the early 1980s, he brought himself into direct conflict with members of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) by describing the proposed new extension of the National Gallery as a ‘monstrous carbuncle on the fact of a much-loved and elegant friend.’