The Gecko gave me this book for my birthday this year. He seemed like a great guy. Certainly a tireless supporter of music. He didn't have a ton of money, and this (auto)biography was supposed to be his "retirement fund." But he died halfway through writing it, so his wife finished it. When the sticks with tunes, it's a fascinating read.
Accompanied by the gay writer and wit Sir Noël Coward at a gala function, she mounted a staircase lined with Guards. Noticing Coward's eyes flicker momentarily across the soldiers, she murmured to him without missing a beat: "I wouldn't if I were you, Noël; they count them before they put them out."
At her funeral, people left bouquets of flowers... and bottles of dry gin.
Both my grandmothers passed away when I was very young (and my grandfathers both died before I was born), so I guess I thought of the Queen Mum as a kind of surrogate granny.