Andrew Scott uses a pen name called Otto English.
The Wizard of the fictional land of Oz, ElizabethAlexandra Mary Windsor, has died at the age of 96.
She played the part of Queen Elizabeth II, a revered figure who wore crowns, opened parliaments and asked people what they did at garden parties. She became head of state to 150 million people, and one of the most famous people of her time, after staring out from the banknote.
The queen was an example. She inspired Andy Warhol screen prints, tea towels and Beatles hits.
The Sex Pistols wrote a song about saving the queen. She isn't no human being. They made a strong point.
She was one of the rare definite articles who seemed to be above scrutiny. Even die-hard republicans would temper their calls for an end to the monarchy if they said that the queen had done a great job.
She made a virtue out of silence in order to succeed at that job. She didn't want to be examined or interviewed. The fourth wall of monarchy was broken by younger royals.
It was by hiding her private persona that Elizabeth II became the most successful ruler since Victoria, bringing relevancy to a feudal institution that was 200 years old.
It's almost impossible to find out who she really was in the story of her life because of that.
The person behind the queen was Elizabeth Windsor and she masterfully played the part.
Today is the day that obituaries of the queen will be published.
The life of Elizabeth Windsor is like this.
On April 21, 1926, she was born to her mother and father. The custom was for the Home Secretary to be present if she was swapped for someone else.
She was third in line to the throne with her uncle Edward.
The very normal-sounding York family address at 145 Piccadilly in the heart of London is the subject of many official biographers. The address was not a garden home. It had 25 bedrooms, a ballroom, a library and a garden.
Photos of the era show Elizabeth and Margaret being doted on by their parents, but in reality, they were brought up by an army of servants and rarely saw their parents. The nannies were Clara Knight and Margaret MacDonald.
MacDonald was allowed to call Elizabeth by her family's nickname Lilibet, and she shared a bedroom with Elizabeth until she was 11 years old. Lilibet referred to MacDonald as "Bobo" in her first words.
MacDonald would bring Elizabeth a cup of tea every morning and she would take a bath every day. MacDonald dedicated her life to the queen until her death in 1993 because she was forbidden from marrying.
Bobo had a unique position in Buckingham Palace, having her own suite, no duties, and enjoying a closer personal friendship with the queen than almost anyone else, according to Douglas Keay.
We don't know anything else. The loyal servant didn't give an interview, didn't discuss her relationship with her mistress, and died with her secrets intact.
It is possible that it is admirable. If you want to know more about Elizabeth Windsor's early life, it's frustrating.
Bobo was just one of many commoners who played a role in the future queen. The girls nicknamed the governess "Crawfie" because she was also a nanny.
When their uncle abdicated and their father became king, Crawfie was the only one who could help them. Crawfie was a role model and friend if Bobo was a surrogate mother.
Crawfie was retired when Elizabeth and Margaret didn't need a governess.
She was offered to write a book called "The Little Princesses" two years later.
The queen mother declared that Crawfie had gone off her head despite having approved the project.
The book was affectionate and showed the royal family in a good light. The king had a bad temper during the war and her fate was sealed by a couple of phrases.
To do a Crawfie is a royal term for treachery. Crawford vanished from official records and narratives in a way that would have embarrassed the Soviets.
Crawfie's impact cannot be overstated. Twice she tried to take her own life. She moved to the Balmoral estate in the hopes that one day she would be able to repair her relationship with her old charge. The moment didn't come. The royal family didn't send a wreath to her funeral.
We don't know what happened to Elizabeth. We don't know how much she was involved in Crawfie's misery. The family that is sometimes referred to as "The Firm" is the subject of this brutal and callous dispatch of a close friend.
Self-preservation is what the monarchy is all about. No one is indispensable. The machine is larger than anyone else. The queen's ruthless self-preservation was so at odds with her image that it reared its head again and again.
It would eventually be extended to the entire family.
The 13-year-old princess met her prince during a visit to the naval college.
Philip was 19 years old at the time. He was an exiled Greek prince who was not in contact with his family. Three of his sisters married into the Nazis. In Monte Carlo, his father lived a life of old age. He had been declared insane by his mother.
He found a place to live. He found love in Elizabeth.
She wrote a letter to her cousin and declared that she had met a god.
We don't know anything about what they said to each other in the queen's private world
Elizabeth got her way and found Philip's uncle, a Machiavellian ally. The couple were going to marry.
We get a glimpse of Elizabeth's feelings in the letter Betty Shew wrote. Four pages that were very emotional. Nightclubs and dancing were once pursued by a photographer through the streets of London, according to Elizabeth. The letter is written by a woman who is in love.
The wedding was a national event. It was actually nothing of the sort. There was a reason for the union. There were a lot of people in London for the event. There were 2,500 gifts, including a shawl woven by Gandhi and a diamond and Platinum Cartier necklace.
The wedding of the beautiful young princess to the handsome young prince seemed to symbolize fresh beginnings and a new hope of a better world after the war.
After Charles and Anne were born, they lived in Malta, where Philip was a naval officer.
This era is once again portrayed as a period of normality. It isn't completely true. They had an army of staff and lived in a six bedroom mansion.
Ordinary life was never going to last long. The 25-year-old woman became queen when her father died.
She had been practicing for the role for a long time, but it came sooner than she thought. Philip turned into a bloody amoeba while his wife surrendered herself completely to her new duties.
Princess Diana once said that there were three people in her marriage. There were 150 million in Elizabeth and Philip's.
The duke of Edinburgh has been away from home for a long time. There were rumors of affairs going on for a long time.
Henry Herbert was the 7th earl of Carnarvon, also known as Porchie. While there is no suggestion that they ever had an affair, their very close friendship caused the rumor mill to go crazy. He was her race manager from 1969 to 1969 and she was his assistant.
Andrew was born in 1960 and Edward was born in 1964.
The Windsors were portrayed as a perfect family with a lot of dedication. The children thought they were lucky if they saw their parents for half an hour a day.
In 1969 a TV crew was given access to make a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the royal family. It was a disaster in the public eye.
The family was shown awkwardly trying to spend time with one another. In one scene, Philip was shown complaining about his wife's steaks, and in another, Edward was seen crying because Charles accidentally hit him with a cello string. The curtain had been pulled back so that we could see a mother and a family that was not normal.
Things were never the same again after the Firm unleashed a self-destructive "Crawfie".
The queen's children were seen as fair game by the tabloid newspapers. The three older children had their private lives examined and their swear words turned into populist fodder.
Millions of people turned out to celebrate Elizabeth and her family's place in the national narrative during the queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977. The Sex Pistols took on "God Save the Queen."
The record rose to the top of the charts after it was banned by the radio station. The institution of the monarchy was attacked by popular culture during the queen's reign.
It wasn't much compared to what Elizabeth was going through. The crowd turned out again in 1981 to watch Prince Charles marry Diana Spencer. It looked like a fairy tale but for the royal family it was the beginning of a tragedy.
The couple had only met a dozen times and had been pushed together in desperation.
Elizabeth wasn't prepared for that and didn't know what to do after that. She made her displeasure known by stripping both Diana and Sarah Ferguson of their titles because of Charles and Anne. As the tabloids dragged her reputation through the mud, Diana lost her office, her police protection and her good name.
Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997 and the royal family spiraled into irrelevance. With Blairite encouragement, the 2002 Golden Jubilee was turned into a people's party and Brian May played the national anthem on Buckingham Palace's roof.
After the queen became the nation's grandmother, affection for her began to return.
The image of an unsmiling monarch loosened up as she got older. There was a stunt with James Bond actor Daniel Craig at the opening of the 2012 Olympics, when she appeared to jump out of a helicopter, and she made a funny video with her grandson in the run-up to the games.
There were hints of a rebel Remainer queen when she wore a hat that looked like an EU flag at the opening of parliament.
As a younger generation of royals seemed ready to breathe new life into The Firm, the family's tensions continued. She made no secret of her dislike for Harry and his new bride, the couple's defection to the U.S. and their damaging interview with Oprah Winfrey in which they were accused of being racist.
The same treatment was not given to everyone. Andrew was the queen's weakness because of his profligate ways and his unpopularity with the public.
The life of Elizabeth is still shrouded in mystery.
She was a country woman who was familiar to the British upper class. It was dry and stiff. She was raised in a cosseted environment. She loved animals and people who loved animals.
She had a lot of knowledge about the things she had. She drove fast about her estates in a Land Rover and devoted her life to protecting her family's business.
It was almost as if she was missing from her own story. She sacrificed an ordinary life in order to give her United Kingdom a monarch. The curious nature of hereditary monarchy did not offer her another path.
Britain is lucky to have had such a strong leader. For more than 70 years, Elizabeth Windsor was the queen. She has left a hole that could be hard to fill.
Many will mourn her. It is possible that many will find themselves wondering who she really was.
The age of Elizabeth when she became queen was incorrect. She was young at the time.
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