Queen Elizabeth Has A Clever Strategy For Remembering Her Guests

Queen Elizabeth has met quite a large number of people in her 67 years reigning as the monarch. Given that the 93-year-old hosts and attends numerous engagements and parties, it comes as no surprise that she has personally met almost a third of the United Kingdom’s population.

Britain’s longest reigning monarch continues to meet more and more people, socializing and sharing small talk with many new faces. One of the more difficult challenges associated with this duty is committing her guests into memory so as to be able to promote conversation with them. A recent report reveals a clever strategy that the Queen uses in order to remember facts about those whom she speaks with.

Famed children’s book author Julia Donaldson — who was appointed Commander of Most Excellent Order of the British Empire at the Queen’s honors — shares her firsthand experience upon meeting the monarch. She explains that the Queen takes note of two facts about the people she’s about to meet and uses this to remember that particular guest.

“I was told the Queen goes through the potted biographies with a yellow marker and just two words get highlighted,” explained the English Writer. “So, when you get called up, the equerry shows her the words. I did my little curtsey, and she said, ‘Oh, so you’re a writer ... you’re very popular ...’ I went off thinking ‘writer/popular...’ those must have been my two words.”

This touching effort by the most powerful woman in Britain awed the writer. Donaldson shared how “full of admiration” she was for the Queen, who would take that extra step to be thoughtful of her guests. “She does this with some 75 people every session and she’s on her feet the whole time,” she continued.

Although parties are generally something that the Queen loves to host and attend, there’s one aspect about it that she could do without. Royal Author Adam Heliker recounted a story about how Her Royal Majesty got “irritated” at the tendency of guests to shy away and avoid her.

“She talked about how irritating it was to go into a party and as she put it, watch people peel away, like the water parting as the bow of a ship ploughed through it,” recounted Heliker. “She said she always felt it would be lovely to just slip into a party, wandering around incognito, talking to anyone she felt like. But the thing that most irritated her was the ‘inevitable hush’ that always greeted her when they saw her walking in.”