Noel Coward

As the Queen departed Westminster Abbey to the shouts of "Vivat Regina!" trumpets sounded and church bells pealed. Enraptured crowds cheered as the stately coaches of seventy-four foreign powers made their way along the coronation route. Despite the downpour, Queen Salote of Tonga rode in an open carriage, the only head of state to do so. An enormous woman, she waved her huge, fleshy arms to greet bystanders and completely overshadowed the frail little man sharing her carriage.

"What's sitting across from her?" someone asked.

"Her lunch," said Noel Coward.

Princess Margaret

The royal allowances remained unchallenged until Princess Margaret let a fox into the chicken coup. With her penchant for weak men, she had become romantically involved with an effete young man who had lived with an avowed homosexual. Margaret was forty-three years old when she met Roderic ("Roddy") Llewellyn at a party. He was seventeen years her junior. As the second son of Sir Henry Llewellyn, he was an aristocrat, which was not insignificant to the Princess.

His father seemed amused by their relationship. "You mean Roddy's new friend?" he asked. "Well, it makes a change from his usual Italian waiters."