Chapter 1: Who is India Hicks and what is her royal connection?
D-U-B-E-S-O-R. I'm coming to you backwards and forwards. This is Rosebud. I'm Jas Brandreth. Cue the music. Welcome to Rosebud. I'm Giles Brandreth, and this has been a special week for Rosebud because we've been remembering our late queen, Elizabeth II, born on the 21st of April 1926, a hundred years ago.
In London, there have been, well, events to mark the centenary, and I wanted us on Rosebud to meet people who... might have known the Queen and could tell us interesting and surprising and unexpected stories about her. So on Tuesday, our special guest was Major General Alastair Bruce, who knew the Queen personally and told his story.
Chapter 2: What was the significance of Lord Mountbatten's role in India's history?
It was quite fascinating to me. And today I've got somebody, I think very special indeed, who actually was related to Elizabeth II because she is one of the descendants of Queen Victoria, because she belongs to the Mountbatten family. It's India Hicks. She's been a designer, a writer, a businesswoman.
She was once upon a time a fashion model, spent much of her life in the Bahamas, but she's an international person. Her mother is Lady Pamela Hicks, who knew the late Queen well, and indeed I think was with Elizabeth II on the very day that she became our Queen back in 1952.
India's story, her own story, is fascinating, and her insights on, well, on royal history, the royal family, indeed about when she was a bridesmaid, high-profile bridesmaid at the wedding of Prince Charles, as he then was the Prince of Wales, and Diana, who became Princess of Wales. It's quite a story. She is quite a guest. This is Rosebud with India Hicks. Cue the music.
Oh, I'm so excited about the guest. I really am. Let me tell you her name, first of all.
Chapter 3: How did India Hicks experience the day of her grandfather's assassination?
See if we've got the right person here. She's so... Well, I mustn't say anything. I must just give you her name. India Amanda Caroline Hicks. Have I got the name right? You have. Why are you called India Amanda Caroline? I knew you were called Hicks because of your father. Well, come on to him, who I met...
years ago when he had just decorated the apartment, or the house of, John Schlesinger, the film director. Did you ever go to that house?
I didn't, but when, of course, people say they met my father, I hesitate. I wait to see which of the David Hicks you met.
Have I got the right one?
You definitely have, but whether it was the tempestuous one or whether it was the very charming one.
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Chapter 4: What insights does India provide about her relationship with Queen Elizabeth II?
Oh. So I wait for that.
He was effortlessly charming.
Wonderful. You got the good one.
Oh, well, clearly this is a story we want to discover. So why are you called India, Amanda and Caroline?
India, because my grandfather was the last viceroy of India.
This is Earl Mountbatten of Burma.
Correct. And I was the last grandchild. So I was given the name, which of course, back in 1963, 1967, it was very unusual. Very unusual to have an unusual name.
Yes, because now everyone's called Paris or... Exactly, and it's so irritating.
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Chapter 5: What was it like for India to be a bridesmaid at Charles and Diana's wedding?
When I was growing up, of course, there were lots of, you know, Pakistan jokes and why you're called Pakistan. And I was always rather threatened by my name, rather embarrassed by my name. I wanted to be an Amanda or a Caroline. Now, of course, I'm irritated when I meet another India. What is their reason?
And your reference to Pakistan is, of course, because your grandfather, Earl Mountbatten, was there at the time of the partition.
Correct.
When India and Pakistan were separated.
Correct.
And the old India became smaller, Pakistan became independent, etc. And we'll touch on, this is supposed to be about you, not about your grandparents, but they're fascinating people. Of course, your grandmother was supposed to have had an affair, or at least a relationship, with the Prime Minister of India.
Absolutely, Nero. Most certainly had a relationship. Whether it was platonic love or physical love, no one probably except my mother really knows.
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Chapter 6: How has India navigated life between two cultures?
And my mother absolutely maintains that it was a very, very deep relationship of mutual respect and adoration and love. But she fundamentally believes that Nero was a man of honour and he would never have actually physically been with the viceroy's wife. However... My grandmother had had many affairs throughout her marriage, as had my grandfather.
Of course, we're talking about a time and a generation and an upbringing where it was much more acceptable. And my grandmother was tricky. She was an amazing woman, amazing. And actually, whenever I'm asked, who would you like to have met in your life? I would have liked to have met her because she fascinates me.
Edwina Mountbatten. Edwina Mountbatten. That's her name, isn't it?
Yes. But she was, I think, tricky. And my mother said it was when she was in love with Nero, she became much easier to be around.
Chapter 7: What lessons has India learned from her upbringing in a royal family?
And of course, those 18 months of transition during the transition of power, which really was a poisoned chalice.
This is 1947, 48.
Correct. 47, they went out there. And my grandfather was asked to go out there. And his mother said, don't go, Dickie. This is the dirty work of the politicians.
but my grandfather very much feeling that duty and service came before anything went out there so my mother who is 97 about to be 97 has very very clear memories of all of that time and it's fascinating to hear her talk I mean I wonder if there is anyone else living today who has sat next to Mahatma Gandhi at a prayer meeting not in a crowd listening, but sat next to him.
And there's an amazing photograph of them both sitting on a stage, on a platform, not a stage.
Because he was assassinated in 1947, wasn't he?
Yes, but my mother obviously got to know him very well to begin with, because when they arrived in India, obviously Gandhi was very, very involved in the transition. But she's fascinating about the command of the crowd that Gandhi could hold when you had hundreds of thousands of people gather to listen to the great man speak.
My mother said you could hear a pin drop because everybody hung on what he was saying.
And what is interesting, because I've seen photographs of those sorts of gatherings, is you are talking about hundreds of thousands, and only the people, the first few thousand, could have heard him.
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Chapter 8: What does India Hicks envision for the future of the royal family?
Yes.
Well, I wondered about that. There were loudspeakers. If you see some of the images, you can see there are loudspeakers beyond. But I think what my mother was trying to illustrate today is a gathering of that size would never be peaceful now. They would be coming in protest or they'd be coming angry. And then it was to listen and to learn and to be informed.
And your grandfather, I mean, we're getting completely ahead of ourselves. We're only on the first name India. We've got to go through Amanda and Caroline in a moment. We haven't done Amanda and Caroline yet. But let's just finish on your grandfather. You say, almost casually, they were of a generation where, in fact, your grandfather's phrase, I'm quoting now the Philip Ziegler biography, was,
which I think is probably the most accurate. Would you agree?
Yes, because it certainly, yeah, warts and all.
He quotes him saying that, yes, well, you know, we hopped in and out of a variety of beds over the years. And you say, well, it was more done in those days. I think it was maybe more done in a certain class in those days. I'm not sure everybody was doing that. Am I wrong? No.
I have no idea. I have no idea. You may well be right. But I think what is in a way, it's not admirable, certainly, but at least they were honest about their relationships and with each other. Whereas I think today many people may still be hopping in and out of each other's beds and much less honest about it.
We're a very puritanical generation now, considering the chaos that we're causing to this world.
Did your grandparents, Earl Mountbatten and Edwina Mountbatten, such a famous couple from the 1920s onwards in all the society pages, etc., from what you know from your mother, did they get on well together? Were they a good partnership?
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