Backing Britain

"I'm Backing Britain was scrawled across this person's backside." (p. 9)


"I'm Backing Britain" was a brief patriotic campaign aimed at boosting the British economy which flourished in early 1968. The campaign started spontaneously when five Surbiton secretaries volunteered to work an extra half an hour each day without pay in order to boost productivity, and urged others to do the same. This invitation received an enormous response and a campaign took off spectacularly, becoming a nationwide movement within a week. Trade unions were suspicious of, and some directly opposed, the campaign as an attempt to extend working hours surreptitiously, and to hide inefficiency by management.

The composers Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent penned a song for Bruce Forsyth with these lyrics:
I'm Backing Britain

yes I'm Backing Britain

We're all Backing Britain

The Feeling is growing

So let's keep it going

The good times are blowing our way.

Lord Kitchener and His Valet

"On the way he had passed several recruiting posters for the First World War, pointing accusatory fingers at him, and a shop called "I was Lord Kitchener's Valet" ..."

A 1914 recruitment poster depicting Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, was the most famous image used in the British Army recruitment campaign of World War I.

Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, (24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was the most famous British Field Marshal of his time, a diplomat, and a statesman. His commands included the Mahdist War (1884-1899), the Second Boer War (1900–1902) and Commander-in-Chief, India (1902–1909). In addition, he was Secretary of State for War, United Kingdom (1914–1916).

I was Lord Kitchener's Valet was a clothing boutique which achieved a period of fame in 1960s Swinging London by promoting antique military uniforms as fashion items.
The original store opened in 1964 at 293 Portobello Road in London's Notting Hill. Due to its great popularity throughout 1966 and 1967 new stores opened on The Kings Road and Carnaby Court off Carnaby Street.
It was a favourite store of Jimi Hendrix who purchased his iconic braided military coat there. Other celebrities that frequented the shops were Eric Clapton, The Beatles and The Who.

Peter Blake who designed The Beatles Sergeant Peppers album cover said that he got the idea while walking past the shop.

The Darnley Portrait of Elizabeth I

"There was the black circling curve of railings to which was tied a repeating series of pale reproductions of the Darnley portrait of Elizabeth Tudor ..."

Incidentally, one of the key images in the novel.

Flora Robson doing Queen Elizabeth

"She had invited Alexander ... to come and hear Flora Robson do Queen Elizabeth at the National Portrait Gallery." (p.9)

Dame Flora Robson (1902-1984)

British actress renowned as one of the great character players of the British theatre and cinema. She played Queen Elizabeth I in The Sea Hawk (1940); but most famously she played the same role in Fire Over England (1937), uttering the lines which are a key part of Elizabethan mythology:

'I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and valour of a King. Aye, and of a King of England too.'