Elizabeth II photographer 45 years ago: Nothing ever pisses off the Queen

London – AFP
Queen Elizabeth II still fascinates Arthur Edwards, despite his closely following for decades, as he has been photographing the British royal family for the past 45 years for The Sun newspaper. On the eve of the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne, Edwards expected the British monarchy to witness a “difficult transition” of power.
And Arthur Edwards answered a set of questions as follows:
How would you describe the character of Queen Elizabeth?
Nothing pisses her off at all. She has always been very respectful and of all the royal family I feel very nervous with her because she has a very impressive presence. She has never spoken to the media, so no one really knows what her thoughts are. But it is possible to get limited information by talking to people such as her dresser.
Each year, she takes a vacation at Balmoral Palace in Scotland, where she stays for three months. I asked her one day: Why don’t you go somewhere else? She replied: Where can I go? I told her: You are the Queen, you can go wherever you want. But she told me she liked Balmoral. Her female aide laughed and told me that the Queen liked Balmoral because people there ignored her for the three months she was there.
She strolls the grounds around the palace, and the staff is busy. If the Queen wants to talk to them, they stop and talk to her, but they never stare at her on their own. As for the police, they are not visible, so they are not seen. During these three months, you become a completely normal person.
As for the reason she loves dogs and horses, she does not know that she is the queen.
What will happen in the coming months?
The transition will be difficult. It won’t be easy because everyone knows the Queen. It’s on every banknote, every coin, every stamp and every mailbox. The Queen is part of our culture and our life. The Prince of Wales does a tremendous job and I know that because I have worked closely with him and his wife.
He’s been on behalf of the Queen several times recently, and he does it without difficulty and people will see that he’s honest and I think they’ll accept him but it won’t be easy. He succeeds a queen who is one of the most distinguished among those who have taken the throne in this country.
I served during the war. Three of her children’s marriages have broken up, and now we have the issues with Harry, and she handles all of this quite brilliantly. When things get complicated, she appears on TV and addresses the nation, as when Diana died or during the Covid-19 pandemic. She is a woman who has her say.
How is it today?
I took pictures of her last October, she was weak but she looked cool, it was great. She was with Boris Johnson and got to know John Kerry and Bill Gates, she was fine. I remained standing for an hour, but the next day I was admitted to the hospital.
Over the past six months, she has become very weak, and has lost a lot of weight. She had alterations to her clothes, and sometimes the dresses looked loose.
She follows her doctor’s advice. The problem is that she can stand and that she can’t walk when she wants to. I wrote an article advocating for her to use a wheelchair. It’s not flawed, but it won’t. If we don’t see the Queen at the Jubilee festivities, millions of people will be disappointed. They’re coming to London for the concert and the show, but what they really want to see is the Queen.