I’m not passionate about the royal family. When I’m at a dinner party and Harry and Meghan come up in conversation, I start to grind my teeth. My home is not plastered with Union flags or royal kitsch; I find such mawkishness frankly embarrassing. But I’m not a republican, either, because rejecting the royal family would be like amputating a limb. It is an integral part of my identity.
The key reason for this is the Queen. I see her as a granny figure. She is dignified and wise and, crucially, familiar: she embodies a link to a past I recognise and cherish. She was the Queen when the first James Bond film was released; she was the Queen when England won the World Cup. When she celebrates the Platinum Jubilee next week, I will feel quiet pride.
I also identify with her because she embodies many of the best values of Britishness: tolerance, decorum, curiosity and an unfussy sense of duty. Even charismatic Left-wing firebrands, like Kwame Nkrumah, loved the Queen. Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast, when it became the first black African country to gain independence from a European colony in March 1957.
Nkrumah is an icon of black radical politics. The former governor-general of the Gold Coast, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, described him as a “thoroughgoing communist”. But one of his most treasured possessions was a picture of him and the Queen taken at Balmoral. She also visited an independent Ghana in November 1961, the year the Berlin Wall went up, and a year before the Cuban Missile Crisis. The month before, Nkrumah had visited Moscow.
British prime minister Harold Macmillan was anxious about her visit, but the Queen was determined to go: “I am not a film star,” she told Macmillan, “I am the head of the Commonwealth — and I am paid to face any risks that may be involved. Nor do I say this lightly. Do not forget that I have three children.”
The trip was a peach. According to Nkrumah’s personal photographer, the Queen was genuinely interested in the cultures of the people she met, asking precise questions, for example, about the cultural significance of native dresses. At a ball, she was introduced to Highlife music — a fusion of the native Akan musical rhythms and Western-style Jazz. She even danced that evening with Nkrumah.
Ghana was not only the first black African country to gain independence. It was also the first African country to join the Commonwealth — the voluntary association of 54 countries that first emerged after the Second World War, when Britain’s colonies started to gain independence.
What attracted Commonwealth leaders to Britain was, again, the character of the Queen. Sir Shridath Ramphal, the former Commonwealth secretary-general, put it best: “I have never met a Commonwealth president or prime minister who doesn’t place maximum value and importance, and often with a lot of affection, on those 15 to 20 minutes when they can sit down with the Queen and talk about their countries, their problems, because she knows them very well.”
Crossrail, Croydon and South East London on the map
The opening of the Elizabeth line is the most exciting thing I’ve witnessed this year. I love how swift and spacious it is. I love its newness. I love how, when you’re inside, you can look from one end of the train to the other with its slight curving bend. But most of all I love how it has put south-east London on the map.
Of course, we have the DLR. But it takes about 25 minutes from Woolwich to the City of London on that line. On the Elizabeth line, by contrast, it takes a cool 15 minutes. There is also the Overground: but let’s be honest, Peckham is barely south-east London. It feels more like Brixton than Woolwich.
I was chatting to someone a couple of weeks ago and she told me that she grew up in south-east London. I asked where. She said Croydon. I nearly had a seizure.
