When I speak to Lionel Shriver it is 5pm on Friday, towards the end of a tumultuous week in which Britain has lost a beloved Queen and attained a new Prime Minister and King. In Brooklyn for the summer, we talk via Zoom, Shriver against a backdrop of haphazardly piled-up hardbacks on sagging bookshelves. What has been the impact of this news, there? “Well, Elizabeth II is one of the only Brits the New York Times would not say a discouraging word about,” drawls the deep-voiced 65-year-old author, who wears a shapeless black T-shirt, heavy-rimmed specs, her hair pulled back into a scrawny pony-tail.
This is in the halo period, before The New York Times begins to take a more ‘schizophrenic’ approach to its coverage of the monarchy. Shriver has lived most of her adult life in the UK but is she a monarchist? “A reluctant one: the royal family does perform a unifying function, or has under Elizabeth. Whether that will continue under Charles is yet to be determined.”
