Robert Forster

But quite briefly, James Hennessy wrote a biography of Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth's grandmother.

And she died in the early 1950s.

And he wrote a biography.

And Hennessy was an unusual person to write.

Normally, they're quite dull.

I'd imagine these books.

And anyway, he was 30, sort of a young man who wrote really well.

And it was a bit of a surprise he got the job.

So this allowed him to write, to interview and intermingle with the aristocracy because the royal family sort of has German roots in Germany and also up in Norway.

So he sort of kept all these private notes.

that are beautifully written, but the biography that he wrote left a lot of it out, all the people that he'd met, including the Queen.

He met her up at Balmoral in 1957.

And so his biography of Queen Mary is regarded as the best royal biography ever written.

And his notes sort of lay dormant for 40 years.

And then Hugo Vickers, who's a writer in England, he gathered all these notes.

So it's sort of a portrait of royalty in the 1950s who are talking about the late 19th century.

It's totally fascinating.

It's an area, you know, monarchy that I never go to, but I found it a great read.

He's from France.

He was born there.