Daily Archives: 21 November 2020

November verse 13: Maggie Thatcher’s Curtsey

November verse 13: 
Maggie Thatcher's curtsey
Insiders know to give a little
bob (or bow if you're a man). It's just
that she's the queen, no need for fiddle-
faddle-flum – no need to bust
a gut. But this is some production:
a creaking almost-genuflexion,
shuttered eyes and head bent low,
lips pursed as if to kiss a toe.
Such obeissance for the monarch
speaks centuries of grocers' love
for rulers blessed by God above,
but also sounds a note sardonic: 
This curtsey, queen of all we see, 
is all you'll ever get from me.

This is of course prompted by the fourth season of The Crown, in which Gillian Anderson gives us a scarily believable, and loathsome, Margaret Thatcher. If you enjoyed that show, and maybe even more so if you didn’t, you might enjoy this brilliant set of impressions from British comedian Kieran Hodgson: