The late Queen Elizabeth ll of England dominates today's newspapers worldwide, with editors reaching for muted superlatives to honour an admired, admirable stateswoman.
Queen Elizabeth ll is virtually everywhere in the public prints. And, if a certain amount of repetition is inevitable, the overall level of respectful inventiveness in the media is truly remarkable.
My personal favourite is Time magazine. They go for a formal portrait photographed by Sir Cecil Beaton in the summer of 1968, when Queen Elizabeth was 42 years old.
Beaton said he wanted his picture of the monarch to be "stark and clear and bold".
TIME's new commemorative cover: Queen Elizabeth II, 1926-2022 https://t.co/NMT3FDTbaQ pic.twitter.com/od7VzQLRen
— TIME (@TIME) September 8, 2022
Even Communist China is unable to resist, with the Beijing-based Daily News giving the queen royal coverage on a front page normally reserved for austere analysis of party fiscal policy and heartening statements from President Xi.
"World mourns Queen Elizabeth ll," reads one of the main headlines in the Daily News. And we learn from the same source that President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolence to Britain's new King Charles III on the death of his mother.
In Moscow, Russian daily Pravda describes the departed monarch as "A worldwide treasure".
A blush from New York's Gray Lady
The New York Times tends to publish headlines of such length and detail that you never actually need to read the story that goes with them.
Today, the Gray Lady gives a warm send-off to a head of state who was not afraid of a splash of colour.
"The Queen’s death comes at a moment of great uncertainty for Britain," the main headline assures us, the article going on to say that there is no analogous British figure who will be mourned as deeply, or whose death will provoke a greater reckoning with the identity and future of the country.
The New York Times has more, in the form of a sidebar headlined "Long an Uneasy Prince, King Charles III Takes On a Role He Was Born To". That's more like it.
Charles, we are told, was once an awkward, self-doubting young man. He comes to the throne, at 73, as a self-assured, grey-haired eminence. The question of which is worse is not debated.
Sydney's Herald says it straight
Down Under, The Sydney Morning Herald takes Australian straight-talking to a new level with a headline describing the Queen's death as "inevitable", adding that it has "still prompted shock". You have to admire that use of "still".
The analysis pages of the same Sydney paper delve into the "secrets of the royal handbag," offering to explain how the Queen endured all the adoration.
She was adept at passing to her support staff the tropical forests of flowers she received from well-wishers. She was, says the Herald, "as deft as a full-back under pressure". Greater praise than this?
And the handbags were not for anything as mundane as carrying things. They were for signalling.
The bag was normally draped from her left arm, but the Queen switched the leather to her right to summon staff to the rescue when she tired of a conversation, according to royal historian Hugo Vickers, quoted in the Sydney paper.
Menzies on the brink of diplomatic doom
Queen Elizabeth was a frequent visitor to Australia. Welcoming her in 1963, the then prime minister Robert Menzies was moved to quote the words of a love poem, There is a Lady Sweet and Kind, by the 17th century composer Thomas Ford.
“I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die,” enthused Menzies, stopping short of a further alarming verse about what it might be like if only “had I her fast betwixt mine arms”.
The story is more complicated in Africa.
The Nairobi-based Kenyan Daily Nation gives pride of place to "President Uhuru Kenyata's farewell parade", which takes place today.
The Queen has to setlle for top of the world news section, and a headline reading "Trouble, strife and family life".
The artricle is lifted from AFP and analyses the conflict between the duties of motherhood and of monarchy, emphasising the supposed impact of maternal absence on Elizabeth Windsor's children.
Royal author Penny Junor once said of the relationship between Prince Charles and his mother: "If he'd been a horse or a dog they would have been a lot closer."
In South Africa, Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters says: "We will not mourn Queen Elizabeth".
A lesson from Nelson Mandela
Malema might learn something from his departed countryman, Nelson Mandela, one of the few human beings who was permitted to call the Queen by her first name.
Mandela believed it was important for the former colonial power to maintain cordial and productive relations with the newly democratic republic of South Africa. He spoke to Elizabeth regularly.
The South African president never failed to mock diplomats and politicians returning from London by asking them if they had met the Queen.
At a dinner for Prince Charles in 1997, Mandela explained Elizabeth ll's Tswana nickname, which is Motlalepula, "she who comes with the rain". She earned the title because her 1995 visit to South Africa coincided with long-awaited torrential downpours.
But Motlalepula also means "she who is keen, intelligent and has attained spiritual enlightenment".
May she rest in peace.
