{"id":197285,"date":"2026-04-14T20:23:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197285\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T20:23:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:23:43","slug":"queen-elizabeth-used-this-silent-signal-of-displeasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197285\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Elizabeth Used This “Silent Signal of Displeasure”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queen Elizabeth<\/a> was known for her compassion, humor<\/a> and sense of duty, and although she kept most of her opinions to herself, every so often, she let her \u201cdispleasure\u201d show. In his new book Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. Her Story<\/a>, royal biographer Robert Hardman shared how the late Queen let people know she wasn\u2019t happy\u2014and the move would definitely have been approved by her friend Paddington Bear<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Noting how \u201cpragmatism\u201d and \u201ckindness\u201d were some of her greatest traits, Hardman added that the late monarch lost her temper sometimes, too. \u201cOutright fury was rare and only vented in-house,\u201d he wrote. \u201cNo less dreaded was a silent signal of displeasure towards those who crossed an invisible line, one usually involving overfamiliarity, culpable incompetence or plain rudeness.\u201d<\/p>\n

This \u201csilent signal\u201d entailed a move straight out of Paddington\u2019s<\/a> playbook: The Hard Stare.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\n

\"Queen\n<\/p>\n

Queen Elizabeth delivered “The Look” when she was displeased with someone.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

\n

\"Elizabeth\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. Her Story.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cStaff would call it, with some trepidation, \u2018the look,\u2019\u201d Hardman wrote. Biographer Kenneth Rose once told Hardman, \u201cIf The Queen ever feels affronted about something, she has the perfect answer. She just stares at the person with open eyes, absolutely no expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from those in her inner circle, the late Queen disliked anyone behaving overly familiar, as Sir Robert Woodard, the former captain of the Royal Yacht Britannia<\/a>, shared. \u201cWhen I went over the top, her eyebrows would go up and I\u2019d apologize,\u201d he said, per Hardman. \u201cShe hoped you\u2019d sort out the distance you needed to keep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed with the statement, with Hardman noting Blair said the late Queen \u201ccan be matey with you, but don\u2019t try to reciprocate, or you get \u2018The Look.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the late Queen didn’t pull a Paddington when it came to \u201cinnocent blunders,\u201d with Hardman pointing out that she enjoyed it when things went awry<\/a> in her carefully choreographed world.<\/p>\n

Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Queen\n<\/p>\n

Queen Elizabeth shared one trait with Paddington Bear. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

One such incident that left Queen Elizabeth \u201cimpressed\u201d happened when a woman\u2019s phone went off at a garden party just as she was being introduced to The Queen. Instead of silencing the cell phone, the woman \u201cslid her hand into her bag without averting her gaze\u201d from Queen Elizabeth and \u201ctossed the phone over the heads of the crowd, continuing the conversation as if nothing had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardman wrote that the late Queen was \u201chighly amused\u201d by the whole thing and \u201cdid not blink,\u201d highlighting her admirable \u201ccapacity to be unshocked by almost anything and her tendency, in any tricky situation, to defer to the most practical solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

TOPICS<\/p>\n


\nQueen Elizabeth II
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queen Elizabeth was known for her compassion, humor and sense of duty, and although she kept most of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-197285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}