Disaster narrowly avoided | April 1999
In preparation for the Queen’s visit to Korea, Buckingham Palace order a dozen pairs of white cotton gloves. The gloves are despatched. On the eve of Her Majesty’s departure Cornelia James receives an anguished (note – ‘anguished’ not ‘panicked’ – the Palace never panics) call from Buckingham Palace: the gloves have not arrived. Cornelia James reels and then rallies. Replacement gloves are found but – late on Saturday evening – delivery is a problem. As dawn breaks on Sunday – the day of the Queen’s departure – Andrew Lawson, Genevieve James’ husband, leaps heroically into the saddle of his powerful motorbike and roars off in the direction of London and the Palace. On arrival it emerges that London is in lockdown for the London marathon and the Palace is in the centre of an exclusion zone, ringed by a thin blue line of police.
