Queen Elizabeth in 2005.Photo: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press/getty
Queen Elizabethisn’t known for expressing her emotions in public. Aside from the occasional smile, the 95-year-old monarch is rooted in stoicism.
But those who work closely with the Queen know exactly how to infer when she’s none too pleased.
“Most know that there are two hazards to be avoided when meeting with the boss: ‘the Line’ and ‘the Look,’ " royal biographer Robert Hardman writes in his upcoming biography,Queen of Our Times: The Life of Queen Elizabeth II, excerpted in this week’s issue of PEOPLE. “You do not want to cross the former or receive the latter.”
As one very senior adviser says in the book. “There’s a withering look, and it looks you up and down, and it was terrifying when it first happened to me.”
“The Look” starts with what some officials call “an eyebrow,” progressing in more extreme cases to “both eyebrows” and then a firm “Are you sure?” according to Hardman.
Queen Elizabeth in 1981.Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
“Another retired courtier still remembers the glacial stare after a mix-up over timings at a state banquet,” Hardman writes inQueen of Our Times, out April 5. (All was resolved with an apology the following day, but it had been an uncomfortable 24 hours.)
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Queen Elizabeth in 1998.Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
As [former prime minister] Tony Blair wrote in his memoirs, “Occasionally she can be matey with you, but don’t try to reciprocate or you get ‘the Look.’ "
source: people.com
