It’s just not done.
Our King, George V, 58, and his lovely wife, Queen Mary, 55, dining in a private home?! Even if the home is in St. James’s Square. It’s not the same as entertaining His Majesty at your country pile for tea or a weekend. That’s perfectly fine. But in a London home?!
No. 4 St. James’s Square
But what can you expect from two Americans? Even if they are the Second Viscount and Viscountess Astor, Lord Waldorf, 43, and Lady Nancy, also 43.
Particularly her. An MP! Well, she’s not the first woman to be elected to the British Parliament. That was Constance Markievicz, 55, but she’s Irish and you know how they are. Refusing to take their seats and all that.
Oh, but Lady Astor definitely took her seat—the one previously held by her husband, until he ascended to the House of Lords so had to give it up.
And she hasn’t sat there quietly like a decent lady should. She actually introduced a bill that will be voted on tomorrow. It probably is a good idea to raise the minimum age for children to be allowed to drink alcohol. But still.
Inviting the King and Queen to your own home?! Even if the purpose is to have a business meeting with labor union executives. What on earth will happen next?!
Ridiculous Americans.
Cartoon of Lady Astor in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Such Friends”: 100 Years Ago… is the basis for the series, “Such Friends”: The Literary 1920s. Volumes I through III, covering 1920 through 1922 are available at Thoor Ballylee in Co. Galway, and as signed copies at Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. They are also on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in print and e-book formats. For more information, email me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.
This summer I will be talking about F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
If you want to walk with me through Bloomsbury, you can download my audio walking tour, “Such Friends”: Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.
Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.
SuchFriends Blog 