Queen Elizabeth and Anna Wintour.Photo: Yui Mok - Pool/Getty
There’s never an awkward moment whenQueen Elizabethis leading the conversation!
Throughout her nearly 70 years on the throne, the 95-year-old monarch has mastered the art of small talk. After all, her interactions range from schoolchildren to everyday workers to fellow heads of state — and she always makes sure to keep things polite and comfortable.
James Rosebush, a Reagan White House official and founder of GrowthStrategy.us, called the Queen the “best purveyor of the art of conversation” in an article forBusiness Insider.
“‘Jim,’ she would say, ‘what do you think about the increasing use of computers today?’ (After I had arranged for one to be given to her from the American people for her personal use.) ‘What’s in that drink you’re having tonight? Tell me about it…’ commenting on what I had ordered when she took us to dinner at Trader Vic’s in San Francisco,” Rosebush said.
Queen Elizabeth.DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty
“It could be anything. Trivial or significant. It was, however, always focused on me — as if I were the important one,” he continued. “She never, ever talked about herself or complained about anything. The focus was always on the other person and delivered as if she were really interested in my answers.”
The Queen put her skills on full display during aJuly 2021 meetingwith German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Windsor Castle. The monarch greeted Merkel and carefully guided her into position for the photographers assembled in the Oak Room to capture the moment.
“We’ve got the photographers here, who are always wanting to take a picture and make history,” the Queen said with a smile.
A few weeks later,Queen Elizabethstayed humble as she welcomed Australian Prime Minister to Windsor Castle. After she invited Morrison to stand closer to her — “Come over here, they want to take a photograph,” she told him — the two smiled as they chatted in the Oak Room.
Prime Minister Morrison informed the Queen that she was “quite the hit” at theG-7 Summitover the previous weekend.
“Everyone was talking about you at dinner the next night,” he said.
“Oh, Lord,” the Queen replied. “Were they really?”
“They were,” Morrison said. “They were thrilled to see you.”
Queen Elizabethmade a surprise appearance at a Richard Quinn fashion show at 2018’s London Fashion Week, sitting next to longtimeVogueeditor-in-chief Anna Wintour. When the magazine head was asked in 2019 what the two women were laughing about during the interaction, Wintoursaid, “She and I discussed how long we’ve both been in our jobs.”
Proving the Queen can talk to absolutely anyone, a video of her chatting with children from around the world at a Christmas party shows her asking them questions and answering theirs — with a sense of humor.
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“How big is your palace?” one asked.
The Queen replied, “My palace is quite large. It has very long corridors to walk down, especially if one’s late.”
The Queen also has a subtle way of letting her staff know that she’s ready to end a conversation. Capricia Penavic Marshall, former chief of protocol for the United States, learned this tactic during PresidentBarack Obamaand First LadyMichelle Obama’s visit to Buckingham Palace in 2011.
“I did learn later on that she perhaps uses the bag as a signal,” Marshallpreviously told PEOPLE. “If it’s on one part of her arm, it means the meeting is going fine, leave me alone. But if she lowers it, it means, ‘End this now. I want to go.'”
source: people.com
