The Quest for Queen Mary

• 7th March 2019

Mary & Georgie invite you to a talk by the Writer and broadcaster Hugo Vickers on “The Quest for Queen Mary” by James Pope-Hennessy, edited by Hugo Vickers.

In the TAPESTRY HALL, BOUGHTON HOUSE on Thursday, 7th March 2019 at 7.00pm – by kind permission of The Duke of Buccleuch.

“Arguably the most riotously funny volume published this year” Max Hastings, The Sunday Times.

TICKET PRICE £15 – Tickets to the event are now SOLD OUT but to register for future updates please email:
contact@overheardwithmaryandgeorgie.co.uk

ALL PROFITS FROM THIS TALK WILL BE DONATED TO CRANSLEY HOSPICE

In 1959 James Pope-Hennessy was reluctant to write the Biography of Queen Mary. His brother finally persuaded him on the grounds that ‘it was a form of anthropology or even zoology’. ‘Royalty is an endangered species and it was an occasion to establish through close inspection, the nature of the phenomenon’. The notes and diaries that JP-H kept at the time were so indiscreet that he insisted they could not be made public for another 50 years. In them a mad, exotic species from a world gone by is conjured up with a few sharp strokes of the pen. Hugo Vickers has now brilliantly edited this material and will be using the book as a basis for his talk.

It is particularly appropriate that we are holding the talk at Boughton as it features in the book when JP-H visited there in the course of a memorable stay at Barnwell Manor with the Duke of Gloucester, one of Queen Mary’s sons. Visiting Boughton, The Duke came across a girl struggling with a wheel-deck-chair over some steps. “I went up and pretended to help her, of course, but in fact I didn’t do a bloody thing. I didn’t even lift the thing. I don’t believe in doing things. She had to do it all herself in the end!”

Hugo Vickers has lectured all over the world from Australia to Russia. He frequently appears on both television and radio and has produced and directed a number of theatrical productions, in which he has performed with, amongst others, both Edward Fox and Prunella Scales. Hugo Vickers is also the author of several biographies including those of Cecil Beaton, The Queen Mother and Princess Andrew of Greece.

Please note: This event is held in the community by our supporters. These events raise money for Cransley Hospice but are not necessarily managed by the Cransley Hospice fundraising team.

Location

Boughton House, Kettering