In normal families it is like this: you stop when someone dies, you mourn, carry your thoughts around with you for the next few weeks and months and feel a pang in your heart when you think of the deceased. It’s a little different for the Royal Family. After the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September, its members were allowed to feel like the protagonists of a soap opera in which the screenwriters wrote in the death of the head of the family, the ratings skyrocket immediately, all eyes on you because the world wants to know: what happens after this great death?
Robert Hardman knows the plot like no other. He is royal correspondent of the “Daily Mail” and constantly busy analyzing the royal family. When he was born in 1965, Queen Elizabeth II had been in power for more than a decade. Like many Britons, Hardman knew no other queen. Does he now feel a phantom pain? A quick laugh on the phone. Yes, of couse. During a speech the night before, he kept slipping out a “Prince of Wales” when he talked about the new King Charles III. spoke. Still, says Hardman, whose biography “Queen of Our Times. The life of Elizabeth II.” has just been published in German, it is remarkable how smoothly the changeover from Elizabeth to Charles went.
