The problem has only gotten worse in recent decades during the course of the reign of Elizabeth II, with the sources for anodyne information readily available in books published in the 1950s and '60s now classified. Whenever I read in a books acknowledgements, "I must thank Her Majesty the Queen for Her Gracious Permission..." I often imagine the gritted teeth through which the author agreed to do so.
King Charles began his reign with a revolutionary new level of openness with his announcement that independent historians would be able to research the monarchy's and the Royal Family's role in the Atlantic slave trade, so I share Mr. Lownie's disappointment. I understand the desire of the family to have the late Queen's diaries vetted by someone close to her personally such as her former footman to redact anything deemed too intimate, at least for a period of 50 years or such until anyone who may be personally embarrassed or offended has died, but that person should be sitting side by side with an eminent historian such as the ones suggested by Mr. Lownie to make sure that an invaluable historical resource is preserved so that future generations may have an accurate record of one of the most transformational, as well as the longest, reigns in British history.
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