In the aftermath of WW2, the Queen, now known as the late Queen Mother, was a stickler for observing the continuing rationing regulations then in force. In an anecdote told in The Queen Mother by Ann Morrow (1985) this aspect of her personality comes out :

On one visit [to Lancashire] a council put on a spectacularly lavish meal which she sat through growing more and more embarrassed. Finally she turned to the mayor and said: “You know, at Buckingham Palace we’re very careful to observe the rationing regulations.” He said to the the Queen: “Oh, well then, Your Majesty, you’ll be glad of a proper do.”

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Patrick Lichfield, Cousin of the Queen and society photographer, collapsed and died yesterday of a stroke at the age of 66.

The Queen said she was “deeply saddened” by the death of her first cousin who had lived his life in the fast lane as one of the world’s most famous photographers.

The journalist, Glenys Roberts, a close friend, writes : “With his dandyish clothes and pop-star mop of chestnut hair, Patrick Lichfield was also an urbane and witty bon viveur with a bottomless fund of colourful stories. A restless entrepreneur whizzing all over the world buying shares in nightclubs and restaurants, at home he was a serious landowner devoted to estate management.”

A Royal aide has suggested that the relationship between Princess Anne and the Duchess of Cornwall (Camilla) is a cool one. “Princess Anne shows a marked indifference to her new sister-in-law.”

Some see this as relating to Anne’s long-term, close friendship with Andrew Parker-Bowles, Camilla’s former husband. But the Princess also privately feels that too much anguish has been caused in making the match between Prince Charles and his new wife at the expence of the Monarchy.

Richard II (1367-1400), King of England (1377-1399), whose reign was marked by national disunity and civil strife.

The nature of the court feasts was determined by his interest in fine cooking and the zest for new combinations of contrasting flavours. His court cookery book The Forme of Cury has been preserved: the manuscript came into the possession of the Staffords, was presented by Edmund Stafford to Queen Elizabeth and later was part of the Harleian Collection; it was printed for the Society of Antiquaries in the reign of George III. It is stated in its prologue that Richard is accounted “the best and ryallest [Royallest] vyander of all Christian Kings” and that the book is compiled by his master cook with “the assent and advisement of maisters of phisik and of phielosophy” that dwelt in his court. It consists of 196 recipes, and throughout there is an emphasis on the exotic; the recipe for cooking oysters in Greek wine seems characteristic. A considerable luxury trade is presupposed: spices are in common use; there is much pepper, sometimes whole, sometimes powdered, and much ginger; there are frequent references to cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and saffron and in one case to spikenard; sugar of Cyprus seems specially prized, but there is also white sugar and sugar clarified with wine.

From : The Court of Richard II by Gervase Mathew