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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Royal Historian Andrew Roberts

Aired March 31, 2002 - 17:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Many Britons are saying special prayers this Easter Sunday for the monarchy's late queen mother, who died in her sleep yesterday at age 101. Her body was moved today to the Royal All Saints Chapel in Windsor Great Park. There, family members are paying their respects to the woman known affectionately to her subjects as the queen mum. The queen mother will lie in state at both Houses of Parliament until her funeral on April 9.

Few people alive today can remember a Britain without the queen mother, who spent almost eight decades in a royal spotlight. British Prime Minister Tony Blair says aside from being a prominent royal, the queen mother was a remarkable person in her own life. Joining us now from London to talk about the life and legacy of the queen mum is Andrew Roberts, a royal historian and author of the book "The Royal House of Windsor."

Thanks for joining us, Andrew. There were so many things that seemed very constant with the queen mum -- the strand of pearls, the hat, and apparently she was very quick to take pictures, but she was not always so loquacious with the reporters and the writers alike. How do you remember her?

ANDREW ROBERTS, AUTHOR, "THE ROYAL HOUSE OF WINDSOR": Well, you are right about not being loquacious. She last gave an interview in 1923, and the then-King George V said that he didn't appreciate it, and she never gave another one. In a way, that's helped her, really, because it's meant that it's kept her mystique. She is not somebody who goes on the TV very much, and people liked that.

WHITFIELD: And isn't it funny how even when people talk about her, just as she always had that perpetual smile on her face, people smile as they even talk about her. What are some of your lasting memories of her that you will forever embrace?

ROBERTS: Well, jokes, really. She was a tremendously funny person. And she had that magnificently understated sense of humor. I remember once I asked her: "How it felt to be an empress?" Because of course there are no more empresses in Europe any longer. And she said, "it was very fun while it lasted," which I thought was a lovely way of putting it.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much. I am sure, you know, Great Britain mourns, but at the same time they have such great fond memories of her, of her legacy, and thousands, I'm sure millions, will be turning out for the procession during her funeral.

Thanks very much, Andrew Roberts, for joining us this evening.

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