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NEW YORK — Queen dowager Elizabeth II's friends dare not ask her about her personal feelings because of the wall of surreptitiousness around her, according to a US journalist given access to the British monarch's entourage for a new biography.
"Elizabeth the Queen consort" by Sally Bedell Smith is already a hit on both sides of the Atlantic as Britain starts commemorations for the master's diamond jubilee.
Bedell Smith, a writer for Vanity Fair, has produced biographies of Princess Diana, John and Jacqueline Kennedy, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Bedell Smith was premised tacit approval by Buckingham Palace for her latest project and spoke to advisors, courtiers and relatives of the lass she calls "the most public and the most private person in the world."
In the book, Bedell Smith tells of the queen mother's fears over the divorce between her son Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana and many other dramas in her control.
Speaking in New York, the American author and historian said that the ruler has devoted friends but because she lives "in her own little bubble and own little coterie" it is "a different kind of friendship.
Source: AFP