Download or read book Backstairs Billy written by Tom Quinn and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "William Tallon was a creature of extremes: though intensely loyal, he was also a dangerous risk-taker; though charming, he could also be vicious; though considerate and amusing, he could be ruthless and predatory. For much of his life he was driven by two demons: a powerful sex drive and an intense, almost pathological love for the Queen Mother..." From humble beginnings as a shopkeeper's son in Coventry to 'Page of the Backstairs' at Clarence House, William Tallon, or 'Backstairs Billy' as he came to be known, entered royal service at the age of fifteen. Over the next fifty years, he became one of the most notorious and flamboyant characters ever to have graced the royal household - the one servant the Queen Mother just could not do without. While others came and went, he remained by her side, becoming one of her most trusted friends and confidants. The fascinating life story of the man who spent more than half a century working for one of the world's most elusive institutions, Backstairs Billy provides a rare glimpse of what the royals really get up to behind closed doors...

Download or read book Little Billy Tallon written by T. Y. MUNROE and published by . This book was released on 2018-04-26 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about William Tallon who was The Queen Mother's Page (Butler). It is not an exposé, but a memoir of working with William at Clarence House by bringing his voice and experiences alive in the way he was, using conversations and events taken from real life. For years as the personal 'Butler' (His ancient job title was Page of the backstairs) to the last Empress of India he enjoyed the high life, drinking Her Majesty's Champagne and cavorting with the guests, paying none or little attention to protocol, either inside or outside palace walls. He loved it! He may have thought he was invincible but of course he was not. He was just a boy from Newcastle. The Press hounded him when Queen Elizabeth died. Not as bad as they hounded Princess Diana but same old thing.'Backstairs Billy' was his nickname created by the Press and used by them ever since. He never gave in, he kept his mouth shut until he died.We go inside Clarence House to join him and his staff over the 100th birthday, and in preparations for a summer trip to Balmoral in Scotland. Then we go with him to serve dinner in the royal box at the ballet at The Royal Opera House.Then we go to Sandringham and eventually back to London in 2002.All this and having to quickly train up a handsome new footman. The new boy is finding it difficult to fit in to such an old fashioned and competitively camp establishment, and as there is no formal training the place is run under its own rules. After all, nobody can tell Queen Elizabeth what to do.Perhaps William's notorious reputation over the years was deserved, as he ran the place on his own terms, but his life suddenly begins to unravel.The book sets out to create a real life time capsule of how it was to work there with William and others, using first hand experience of conversations with William.He worked 50 years but he was not required around Queen Elizabeth for the last few weeks of her life, which tormented him to the last, yet from the adulation to the agony, he would probably love to do the whole thing all over again!

Download or read book Mrs Keppel written by Tom Quinn and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Alice Keppel, it was all about appearances. Her precepts were those of the English upper classes: discretion, manners and charm. Nothing else mattered - especially when it came to her infamous affair with King Edward VII. As the King's favourite mistress up until his death in 1910, Alice held significant influence at court and over Edward himself. But it wasn't just Edward she courted: throughout her life, Alice enthusiastically embarked on affairs with bankers, MPs, peers - anybody who could elevate her standing and pay the right price. She was a shrewd courtesan, and her charisma and voracity ensured her both power and money, combined as they were with an aptitude for manipulation. Drawing on a range of sources, including salacious first-hand eyewitness accounts, bestselling author Tom Quinn paints an extraordinary picture of the Edwardian aristocracy, and traces the lives of royal mistresses down to Alice's great-granddaughter, the current Duchess of Cornwall. Both intriguing and astonishing, this is an unadulterated glimpse into a hidden world of scandal, decadence and debauchery.

Download or read book The Final Curtsey written by Margaret Rhodes and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-11-23 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling behind-the-scenes memoir of the royal family by a cousin who served in MI5—and as one of the Queen’s bridesmaids. Includes photos! A Sunday Times number one bestseller in the United Kingdom, this is the intimate and revealing autobiography of Margaret Rhodes, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and niece of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost vanished world of privilege. Royalty often came to stay, and her house was run in the style of Downton Abbey. During the Second World War, she “lodged” at Buckingham Palace while she worked for MI5. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin, Princess Elizabeth, to Prince Philip. Three years later, the King and Queen attended her own wedding, in which Princess Margaret was a bridesmaid. In 1990, she was appointed as a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother, acting also as her companion, which she describes in touching detail. In the early months of 2002, she spent as much time as possible with her ailing aunt and was at her bedside when she died. The next morning, she went to Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom to pray, and in farewell dropped her a final curtsey. The Queen Mother regarded Margaret Rhodes as her “third daughter,” and she has been extremely close to her cousins, the Queen and Princess Margaret, throughout their lives. Full of charming anecdotes, fascinating characters, and personal photographs, this is an unparalleled insight into the private life of the British monarchy. “Surprisingly addictive.” —New Zealand Herald

Download or read book The Reluctant Billionaire written by Tom Quinn and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Gerald Grosvenor, sixth Duke of Westminster, died in August 2016 he was one of the world's richest men, his fortune estimated at just under £10 billion. Yet he hated his wealth and spent long periods suffering from severe depression, much of it brought on by a feeling that his whole life had been a failure and that his money had destroyed any chance of happiness. At the same time, he could be ruthless in running the business while often feeling he was only a mascot. Gerald Grosvenor came into the line of succession by mere chance – or 'rotten bad luck' as he put it. The third Duke was childless and the title passed to a cousin, who became fourth Duke in 1963 and then, when he died four years later, to his younger brother, Gerald's father, Robert Grosvenor, who lived on an island in Lough Erne where Gerald grew up. Tom Quinn interviewed the sixth Duke on a number of occasions as well as people who knew the duke socially or had at various times worked with or for him. He discovered a complex man tortured by what he saw as his failures. He was a man who longed to return to his idyllic rural childhood yet was only really happy as an adult in the company of call girls. The book looks at the long and often eccentric history of the Grosvenor family and its wealth and the complex means by which that wealth has been shielded from the taxman, as well as the bizarre life of a man who was that strangest of things: The Reluctant Billionaire.

Download or read book Mastercrafts written by Tom Quinn and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a major new exploration of traditional British craftsmanship, accompanying the prime time BBC TV series presented by Monty Don. Mastercrafts; gave the opportunity for apprentices in six traditional crafts to learn intensively from a master.

Download or read book Kensington Palace written by Tom Quinn and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than 300 years, Kensington Palace has played host to a colourful cast of kings, queens and assorted aristocratic hangers-on. A stone's throw from the bustling streets of central London, this grand building has served as the stage for some of the most dramatic and bizarre events in the history of the royal family. It was here that the young Queen Victoria was held a virtual prisoner for eighteen years; and it was here that George II installed both his wife and his mistress, giving the latter rooms so damp that there were said to be mushrooms growing on the walls. More recently, the palace has witnessed an extraordinary series of scandals, from Princess Diana's bombshell TV interview with a journalist smuggled into the palace disguised as a salesman, to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's shock departure – first for Frogmore Cottage, and then for America – amid rumours of a rift with William and Kate. With exclusive interviews with palace staff past and present, fascinating historical details and a fully updated postscript considering what life after Kensington holds for Harry and Meghan, Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir from Queen Mary to Meghan Markle offers a rare behind-the-scenes insight into one of Britain's most iconic residences.

Download or read book Tabloid Secrets written by Neville Thurlbeck and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In nearly twenty years at the top of the News of the World, Neville Thurlbeck - chief reporter, news editor and scoop-hunter extraordinaire - served up some of the most famous, memorable and astonishing headlines in the paper's existence. They lit up the world of tabloid journalism and featured names such as David Beckham, Fred and Rose West, Jeffrey Archer and Robin Cook, among many others. Along the way, Thurlbeck was drawn into encounters with Cabinet ministers, rent boys, sports stars, serial killers, drug lords and, on one occasion, a devil-worshipping police officer. He worked with MI5 and the National Criminal Intelligence Service, foiled a murder and gave Gordon Brown a tongue-lashing to remember, all in the name of journalism. Now, in Tabloid Secrets, he reveals for the first time the truth about how he broke the stories that thrilled, excited and shocked the nation, and secured the paper up to fifteen million readers every week. The result is a fascinating, scandalous, swashbuckling insight into some of the biggest and most sensational scoops by Fleet Street's most notorious reporter.

Download or read book Monarchies written by Tom Bentley and published by Demos. This book was released on 2002 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Like a Virgin written by Gordon Steel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-11 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A romp through the bubble-gum years of teenage life. Angela and Mazine, besotted with Madonna, play truant from school, form a band, attempt to write songs and, with hairbrushes in hand, live out their adolescent dreams of becoming famous. Meanwhile Angela's mother, Viv, struggles to come to terms with her marriage break-up and her daughter's explosive lifestyle, as the play rollercoasters through hope, sex, ambition, despair, and, most of all, love.

Download or read book It s a Long Way from Penny Apples written by Bill Cullen and published by Mercier Press Ltd. This book was released on 2002-09 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paperback edition of the number one best-seller that made Bill Cullen a household name. The Bill Cullen story is an account of incredible poverty and deprivation in the Dublin slums. It highlights the frustration of a mother and father feeling their relationship crumble as they fight to give their children a better life. It's a story of courage, joy and happiness. Of how a mother gave inspiration and values to her children saying, 'The best thing I can give you is the independence to stand on your own feet'.

Download or read book The Chili Queen written by Sandra Dallas and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2003-09-10 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life may have been hard on Addie French, but when she meets friendless Emma Roby on a train, all her protective instincts emerge. Emma's brother is seeing her off to Nalgitas to marry a man she has never met. And Emma seems like a lost soul to Addie-someone who needs Addie's savvy and wary eye. It isn't often that Addie is drawn to anyone as a friend, but Emma seems different somehow. When Emma's prospective fails to show up at the train depot, Addie breaks all her principles to shelter the girl at her brothel, The Chili Queen. But once Emma enters Addie's life, the secrets that unfold and schemes that are hatched cause both women to question everything they thought they knew. With Sandra Dallas's trademark humor, charm, and pathos, The Chili Queen will satisfy anyone who has ever longed for happiness. The Chili Queen is the winner of the 2003 Spur Award for Best Western Novel.

Download or read book They Also Serve written by Tom Quinn and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During more than thirty years in a variety of houses, Bob Sharpe managed to rise from garden boy to valet and butler.As a boy he had to kill pheasant chicks, boil rabbits for the estate dogs, carry the wood up and down stairs every day for thirty fires and sleep on the floor outside his master's room. He cleaned shoes, ironed underwear and socks and once had to stand all night in the hall waiting for a late visitor to arrive.But as a butler he was the best paid servant in the house, waited on, feared and respected by the other servants.Bob Sharpe knew the real world of upstairs downstairs and the secrets of the landed gentry - even to the point of incest and attempted murder!

Download or read book Not in Front of the Corgis written by Brian Hoey and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Windsors are England's most famous family, but what are they really like when they're out of the public gaze? Behind closed doors in every Royal residence, from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House, there are two families - one upstairs and one down - and nobody knows a Royal quite like a Royal servant, intimately acquainted as they are with every quirk, foible and eccentricity. And there are a fair few! This is the inside story of the Royal Family through the eyes of those who know them best, a sneak peek behind the ermine-trimmed curtains to reveal what they really get up to in their spare time. Are they just like us? Or are they are a world apart? Here are the answers to everything we've ever wondered about the Royals: which programmes does the Queen watch on TV? What music did the Queen Mother listen to? Who can drive and who can't? What is it like to attend a dinner party thrown by Charles and Camilla? Who are the most popular (and most unpopular!) Royals to work for and why? Not in Front of the Corgis is the real Upstairs Downstairs - a unique and fascinating collection of all the secrets you ever wanted to know about the Royal Family.

Download or read book The Cook s Tale written by Nancy Jackman and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nancy Jackman was born in 1907 in a remote Norfolk village. Her father was a ploughman, her mother a former servant. Nancy left school at the age of 12 to work for a farmer and continued to work as a cook until the 1950s, sustained by her determination to escape and find a life of her own.

Download or read book Wings Over the World written by Tom Quinn and published by White Lion Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nowadays air travel is as routine as catching a bus. But before the war, it was truly extraordinary. A giant Handley-Page biplane bound for Paris, bouncing along Croydon Aerodrome's grass runway, meant seat belts were primarily needed before take-off. Africa by Empire flying boat was a five-day aerial voyage via lakes that had to be cleared of hippos before touchdown. On a wartime Boeing flying boat crossing the Atlantic, the navigator plotted his course by the stars. Now, historian Tom Quinn records the remarkable reminiscences of British pilots, navigators, stewardesses, and station commanders. Abundantly illustrated with period posters, photos, and memorabilia, this is stirring social history from the edge of living memory.

Download or read book Jane Eyre written by Polly Teale and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Orphaned at an early age, Jane Eyre leads a lonely life until she finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the mysterious Mr Rochester and sees a ghostly woman who roams the halls by night.