“Across a life and reign, two moments from two very different eras illuminate the thread that bound the many decades together. At each a chair, a desk, a microphone, a speech. In each, that high-pitched voice, those clipped precise vowels, that slight hesitation about public speaking that would never quite seem to leave her.
One moment is sun-dappled, though the British people were suffering through a terrible post-war winter. A young woman, barely more than a girl really, sits straight-backed, her dark hair pulled up, two strings of pearls around her neck. Her youthful skin is flawless, she is very beautiful. A life opens out ahead of her.
She pledges that life to her audience around the world. She tells them: “I shall not have the strength to carry out this resolution alone.” And she asks for their company in the years to come”.
Credit: Read more: By Jonny Dymond
Royal correspondent – https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59761477
