Today’s Times Magazine was printed several days before news of the Princess of Wales’ illness was made public and the interview conducted on March 14
In his seminal 1867 work, The English Constitution, the eminent Victorian thinker Walter Bagehot stressed the importance of mystery to the royal family’s enduring appeal. “We must not let in daylight upon magic,” he mused.
I wonder what Bagehot would have made of Gary Goldsmith. He’s not royal himself, of course. Sure, he does style himself the “King of Fun”. But his real claim to fame is being uncle of our future queen, the Princess of Wales. Sorry, he’s her “Buncle”. That’s Goldsmith’s term, a portmanteau word meaning “bad uncle”, which kind of prepares you for the impact of
