Royal approval for new artistic tribute to late Queen

Royal approval for new artistic tribute to late Queen

The King has given permission for the purple velvet, used to cover the late Queen’s catafalque in Westminster Hall, to be repurposed into new artwork to commemorate Her Late Majesty’s Lying-in-State.

According to Parliamentary staff, the Royal Household granted special permission for the fabric to be used.

Tina Crawford’s A Million Footsteps is a free-thread embroidered artwork incorporating the majestic fabric, which represents the flow of thousands of mourners paying their respects.

The piece forms part of a new exhibition in Westminster Hall, now open to the public: A Historic Farewell: Art as Witness to the Lying-in-State of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

I was given a guided tour this week, and the experience brought back poignant memories of seeing hundreds file past the late Queen’s coffin – I stood on a platform during the official mourning period in September 2022.

Parliament invited six artists from across the UK to document the historic event – chosen to represent a range of regions, career stages and artistic media.

They were called to Westminster immediately after the Queen’s death and observed events over several days before producing commissioned works.

Oil painting, pencil drawing, printmaking, embroidery, film and sculpture were used by the artists to capture different perspectives of one of the defining moments in modern British history.

The work also aims to capture the people, ceremony and the behind-the-scenes operations that made the event possible.

Dryden Goodwin created 588 portrait drawings of members of the public, made while standing alongside the queue.

He wore a body camera as he created the portraits, capturing conversations with those waiting and his drawing process, and extracts of the footage are displayed on a screen – alongside the portraits.

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Three oil paintings by Caroline Walker focused on the women of Parliament who played key roles during the ceremonies, including Dame Sarah Clarke (first female Black Rod) and female doorkeepers.

Julia Midgley etched the famous queue from viewpoints overlooking New Palace Yard, Westminster Hall and Victoria Tower Gardens.

Observations within the House of Lords, and the dismantling of ceremonial spaces following Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, inspired Lachlan Goudie to create paintings titled The Vigil.

Earlier this year, a bronze sculpture of an angel, inspired by the medieval hammerbeam roof angels in Westminster Hall, was permanently installed in the Norman Porch to mark the centenary of Queen Elizabeth’s birth.

Eleanor Crook wanted to symbolise protection over the Queen during the Lying-in-State, and the exhibition includes preparatory models, sketches and design studies.

The statue itself remains in the Norman Porch within the Palace of Westminster.

The free exhibition is open until September, with around 17,000 dedicated exhibition places available through the UK Parliament Website.

All commissioned artworks have also been made accessible online through the Parliamentary Art Collection.

Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.

Queen champions biggest children’s literature success since Harry Potter

Just weeks after The Queen invited Harry Potter author JK Rowling for tea, Her Majesty is collaborating with arguably the next big literary success – something Walt Disney Studios is already planning to adapt into a blockbuster film series.

Announced on her birthday, Queen Camilla is gifting a special edition of Katherine Rundell’s award-winning novel Impossible Creatures to every child in their final year of primary school this Christmas (Year six and Primary six).

The edition will feature a shining royal stamp and a personal message from The Queen, who describes the author Katherine Rundell as “one of my favourite writers” and her book Impossible Creatures as “a brilliant fantasy that will introduce you to a host of mythical friends and terrifying enemies… and I hope that you will love it as much as I do.”

Led by the National Literacy Trust, of which Her Majesty is Patron, the project marks the twilight month of the National Year of Reading – the biggest campaign in a generation to inspire the joy of reading.

Research shows the number of children reading for pleasure has declined sharply,

The charity’s own survey of 125,375 UK children and young people aged 5 to 18 found that enjoyment of reading in their free time drops sharply by 30 per cent between the ages of eight to 11 and 11 to 14.

Less than half of all children and young people surveyed read for pleasure.

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Mrs Rundell, the award-winning author and National Year of Reading ambassador, said: “I’m so immensely honoured that Her Majesty The Queen has chosen Impossible Creatures as her Christmas Gift to every child in Year Six.”

“Her gift is given at the best possible time. This is the National Year of Reading, a celebration and reminder that the things that reading gives us – creative imagination, intellectual freedom, critical thinking, ethical compassion, good jokes, delight in great ideas – must be at the heart of our future and our democracy.”

“This generation of brilliant kids face extraordinary challenges ahead; and books, if we ensure they have access to them, will be their strongest and sharpest tools with which to build a future. I’m thrilled to be part of a project which has at its heart the power of shared stories and shared ideas.”

The Queen has a huge interest in literacy, both in children and adults, and supports the National Literacy Trust help people across Britain have the literacy skills they need for a happier, healthier and more prosperous life.

Impossible Creatures (Bloomsbury) is the first in a series of five books.

It introduces 12-year-old Christopher Forrester to a secret archipelago in the midst of the North Atlantic Ocean, where the creatures of myth and legend survive.

There, he will discover dragons, ratatoskas, unicorns, kankos, longmas and an impossible girl called Mal who needs his help – for something is threatening their survival.

A copy will be distributed to every child in their final year of primary school in the UK, through schools, libraries and targeted community outreach.

Drown sorrows

On Wednesday, the nation lamented as England narrowly missed out on a place in the World Cup final, losing 2-1 to Argentina.

Despite the winning side’s gloating, King Charles still reigns over the Falkland Islands – Queen Elizabeth II’s Armed Forces pushed back the Argentine invasion in 1982.

The following day, The King and Queen were in Dorset, visiting the Hall & Woodhouse Badger Brewery which celebrates its 250th anniversary next year.

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PA

Helped by Queen Camilla, the King poured a pint of Fursty Ferret, a best seller with the family-owned brewery based in the town of Blandford.

“Maybe it’s a good day to drown a few sorrows,” King Charles declared, before tasting the beer.

I suspect he wasn’t the only Englishman with that mindset on Thursday.

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